Productions
After out-of-town tryouts, the original Broadway production opened on Broadway on March 16, 1969 at the 46th Street Theatre (now the Richard Rodgers Theatre) and closed on February 13, 1972 after 1,217 performances. In its three-year run, it played in three different theatres: the 46th Street, the St. James Theatre (1970) and, finally, the Majestic Theatre (1971). The principal cast included William Daniels, Howard Da Silva, Paul Hecht, Clifford David, Ronald Holgate, David Ford, Virginia Vestoff and Ken Howard. Rex Everhart, who was Da Silva's understudy, replaced him on the original Broadway cast album after Da Silva suffered a mild heart attack, which required him to leave the show temporarily. Betty Buckley made her Broadway debut as Martha Jefferson in the original stage production. Clifford David left the production soon after opening. He was replaced as Rutlege by David Cryer who was in turn replaced by John Cullum. Cullum had been the creative team's first choice for Rutledge and indeed, his performance was deemed so iconic that he became one of the few Broadway replacements in history to recreate his role on film. (Cullum was succeeded in the Broadway production by Paul-David Richards.)
The musical toured for two years in the U.S. and was given a London production, opening on June 16, 1970 at the New Theatre. The production starred Lewis Fiander as Adams, Vivienne Ross as Abagail Adams, Ronald Radd, Bernard Lloyd, David Kernan as Rutledge, John Quentin as Jefferson and Cheryl Kennedy as Martha Jefferson.
1776 was revived by the Roundabout Theatre Company, opening on August 4, 1997, in a limited engagement at the Roundabout's home theatre, the Criterion Center, before transferring to the George Gershwin Theatre on December 3, 1997 for a commercial run. It closed on June 14, 1998, after 333 performances and 34 previews. The production was directed by Scott Ellis with choreography by Kathleen Marshall, and featured Brent Spiner as Adams, Michael Cumpsty as Dickinson, Pat Hingle as Franklin, and Paul Michael Valley as Jefferson. Rex Everhart, who replaced Howard Da Silva on the original cast album, understudied Hingle as Franklin.
Read more about this topic: 1776 (musical)
Famous quotes containing the word productions:
“It is well known, that the best productions of the best human intellects, are generally regarded by those intellects as mere immature freshman exercises, wholly worthless in themselves, except as initiatives for entering the great University of God after death.”
—Herman Melville (1819–1891)
“If in many of my productions terror has been the thesis, I maintain that terror is not of Germany, but of the soul.”
—Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849)
“Most new things are not good, and die an early death; but those which push themselves forward and by slow degrees force themselves on the attention of mankind are the unconscious productions of human wisdom, and must have honest consideration, and must not be made the subject of unreasoning prejudice.”
—Thomas Brackett Reed (1839–1902)