Happy Election Day. The musical is one of America’s unique art forms. Though many examples are little more than escapist entertainment, some shows have tackled the difficult questions of our American experiment. When you’ve returned from your polling site, please enjoy the clips below from five of the best musicals about presidential politics — covering the range of American history from the Founding Fathers to George W. Bush.
1776 (1969): Sherman Edwards and Peter Stone’s version of the signing of the Declaration of Independence dramatizes how an unlikeable John Adams persuaded his colleagues to vote for American independence, aided by the more genial Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson. Below is the 1972 film cast in “Cool, Cool, Considerate Men.”
Assassins (1990): Stephen Sondheim and John Weidman’s Off-Broadway show uses the framing device of an all-American (yet sinister) carnival game in which the (successful or not) presidential assassins, from John Wilkes Booth to John Hinckley, explain their motivations. Below is the Broadway revival cast in “Everybody’s Got the Right to Be Happy” at the 2004 Tonys.
Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson (2010): This rock musical, with a score by Michael Friedman and book by Alex Timbers, explores the founding of the Democratic Party, reimagining Andrew Jackson as an populist Emo rock star who promises to “take a stand against the elites.” Below is the original Broadway cast in “Populism, Yea, Yea!”
Hamilton (2015): In Lin-Manuel Miranda’s imagining of Founding Father Alexander Hamilton as an immigrant striver, “one man’s story becomes the collective narrative of a nation,” as critic Marilyn Stasio wrote. Below is the original Broadway cast in “History Has Its Eyes on You / Yorktown” at the 2016 Tonys. (The song starts about 2:15.)
First Daughter Suite (2015): This chamber musical expands the story Michael John LaChiusa began in First Lady Suite (1993), adding stories of the Nixon, Carter, Ford, Reagan, and Bush women to those of Jackie Kennedy, Mamie Eisenhower, Margaret Truman, and Eleanor Roosevelt. Below is the original Off-Broadway cast in the opening number of First Daughter Suite.