1776

Winner of five 1969 Tony Awards, including Best Book and Best Musical, this oft-produced musical play is an imaginative re-creation of the events from May 8 to July 4, 1776 in Philadelphia, when the second Continental Congress argued about, voted on, and signed the Declaration of Independence.Sherman Edwards was a composer and lyricist, best known for the songs of the 1969 Broadway hit 1776. The musical was a recipient of the New York Drama Critics Circle Award and five Tony Awards, including Best Book and Best Musical. Edwards worked with acclaimed bandleaders such as Tommy Dorsey, Benny Goodman, and Louis Armstrong, and in addition to his work in music, he was also an actor and a dancer in several Broadway plays. He died in 1981.

Peter Stone was an award-winning writer of film, stage, and screen who served as the president of the Dramatists Guild of America for 18 years. The first writer to win an Oscar, an Emmy, and a Tony Award, Stone attended Bard College and the Yale School of Drama and began his career working in Paris as a writer and news reader for CBS. Among his numerous successes are his first screenplay, Charade, which starred Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn, the comedy Father Goose, and Broadway hits 1776, Titanic, and Woman of the Year.