Elissa Harbert and Janani Sridhar, Singing the Revolution: Broadway Musicals and the Revolutionary War
For a century, Broadway songwriters have set the American Revolutionary era to music, retelling America’s founding story in song and dance. Each musical reimagined the Revolution by infusing it with the politics and values of its own time, just as we are doing now, at the 250th anniversary of the nation. In this lecture-recital, musicologist Dr. Elissa Harbert will discuss each work’s production, reception, and political messages. In turn, Dr. Janani Sridhar, soprano and voice professor, and DePauw University students will perform songs from the musicals.
Dearest Enemy (1925) by Rodgers and Hart celebrated American women’s contributions to the war and told a romantic tale of love between an American patriot and a British soldier. Ben Franklin in Paris (1964) regaled audiences with Franklin’s humor and wisdom as he secured French support for the Revolutionary War. The beloved 1776 (1969) has taught generations of Americans about the signing of the Declaration of Independence. For the Bicentennial in 1976, Leonard Bernstein and Alan Jay Lerner presented a musical about the White House that ended up as their biggest failure, 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue (1976). Most recently, the juggernaut Hamilton (2015) invited more Americans than ever before to see themselves represented in the founding story, with a hip hop and pop score that has made it the most popular musical of the 21st century. Each of these shows has added cultural memory and melodies to how we imagine the American Revolution.