Singing the Revolution: Broadway Musicals and the Revolutionary War
Date and time is TBD
|Music on the Square
How Broadway has reimagined America’s founding in song for 100 years.
Time & Location
Date and time is TBD
Music on the Square, 21 N Indiana St, Greencastle, IN 46135, USA
About the event
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…