Scarinci: Parsippany’s Connection to 1776

As America celebrates the 250th Anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, Mayor Pulkit Desai can proudly point to Parsippany’s connection to the story of our nation’s birth.

Perhaps the most well-known retelling of the story of our separation from Kings was hatched from the mind of one of Parsippany’s own.  Sherman Edwards, who lived in Parsippany for three decades, conceived, composed, and wrote the lyrics for the famous Broadway musical, “1776.”

 The Broadway show won five Tony Awards in 1969, including Best Musical and Best Book. The musical was adapted into a film in 1972 and has seen several revivals over the years, including the most recent at the Paper Mill Playhouse in Millburn, New Jersey.

The show follows Founding Father John Adams, along with Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin, as they fight for American independence against a deadlocked Continental Congress, culminating with the drafting and signing of the Declaration of Independence.

While the show originated on Broadway, there is a local story worth remembering: one of the men most responsible for bringing that founding drama to the stage lived not in Philadelphia, Boston, or New York, but in Parsippany, New Jersey.

Edwards transformed what could have been a dry civics lesson into one of the most durable American musicals. Edwards recounted that “I wanted to show [the founding fathers] at their outermost limits. These men were the cream of their colonies. … They disagreed and fought with each other. But they understood commitment, and though they fought, they fought affirmatively.”

Edwards was also an unusual Broadway success story. Before “1776,” he was not primarily known as a Broadway composer. He had studied history, taught American history at James Monroe High School, and worked as a pianist with major musicians and bandleaders, including Tommy Dorsey, Benny Goodman, and Louis Armstrong. While he wrote popular songs, including “Broken-Hearted Melody,” “See You in September,” and “Wonderful, Wonderful,” “1776” was his only Broadway score.

In many ways, “1776” works because Edwards understood both music and history. He did not treat the Founders as marble statues. He made them impatient, vain, funny, exhausted, argumentative, and deeply human. John Adams is not presented as a serene national icon, but as a stubborn, unpopular man trying to force a divided Congress to act. Benjamin Franklin is wry and pragmatic. Thomas Jefferson is brilliant but reluctant. The delegates bicker, stall, bargain, and compromise. In other words, Edwards gave American independence a pulse.

The original Broadway production opened on March 16, 1969, and ran for 1,217 performances. The timing of its Broadway debut was significant. “1776” arrived in 1969, in the middle of the Vietnam era, at a moment when Americans were fiercely divided over war, patriotism, protest, and the meaning of citizenship.

That may be one reason the show still feels alive. “1776” is not merely a patriotic pageant. It is a musical about the difficulty of democratic decision-making. It reminds audiences that the Declaration of Independence was not inevitable. It had to be argued into existence by imperfect people, in a hot room, under pressure, with no guarantee of success.

The rediscovery of Sherman Edwards is especially timely as the country approaches the 250th anniversary of independence. A man who lived in Parsippany helped give modern Americans one of the most memorable theatrical versions of the nation’s founding. His achievement was not to make the Founders smaller, but to make them reachable.