1776 (musical): Difference between revisions

** Lewis Morris: New York abstains... courteously.

* [[Chekhov's Gun]]: The absence of the delegation from New Jersey is repeatedly brought up, which keeps their arrival from being a deus ex machina.

* [[Composite Character]]: The John Adams in this musical is something of an amalgam of the real John Adams and his cousin Samuel Adams.

* [[Cool Horse]]: Lee's horse, especially during "The Lees of Old Virginia". It begins when Lee remarks "may my horses turn to glue..." -- at which point the horse nudges Lee in the chest. And it ends when Lee rides away -- because any horse capable of standing still whilst someone runs up behind him (in his ''blind spot'', no less) and leaps onto his back without bucking, rearing, or bolting automatically qualifies for the description.

* [[Hate Sink]]: John Dickinson, who isn't at all evil, but takes point for the anti-Independence side.

* [[Historical Domain Character]]: With the exception of the courier and McNair's assistant -- called only "Leather Apron" -- every single person who appears in the Congressional chambers, speaking role or not, is a historically documented personage. Yes, even Thomson and McNair were real people.

* [[Hypocritical Humor]]: "Two [useless men] are called a law firm." John Adams was a lawyer -- in particular, he was famous for defending the British soldiers after the Boston Massacre.

** Adams could have been aiming a bit of self deprecating humor at himself and/or a [[Take That]] at his lazy contemporaries, much like when he decries the congress he's a part of.

* [[Take That]]: To the New York Legislature. New York only ever [[Stiff Upper Lip|abstains ("Courteously!")]] when called upon to vote, because the New York Legislature had never bothered to ''give'' the New York delegation any instructions, as "they all talk very loud, and very fast, and nobody listens to anybody else, with the result that nothing ever gets done." This was just as true in 1972 as it was in 1776, and as any New Yorker will tell you, it's ''still'' true today.

** In the show's Broadway debut, this line got the biggest laugh out of all of them.

* [[Too Important to Walk]]: Subverted. Benjamin Franklin is carried in a sedan chair right to his seat in Congress -- but it's not because he's vain or thinks he's better than the other representatives, it's because his gout is acting up and he actually can't walk. A minute later he jokes [[Self-Deprecation|self-deprecatingly]] about being a "great man".

* [[Truth in Television]]: Vast amounts of dialogue and even song lyrics were lifted ''intact'' from the writings of the various Founding Fathers. In particular, "obnoxious and disliked" was ''John Adams' own description'' many decades after the fact of how he felt he was viewed by the Founders and the nation in general (although many historians feel he was an [[Unreliable Narrator]] in this respect), and his duets and discussions with the mental image of his wife Abigail are composed of passages from their letters to each other -- including the "Saltpeter!"/"Pins!" [[Running Gag]].