History-loving musical theater buffs rejoice: These hit shows (including one super-hot Grammy winner) offer more than entertainment value. Get thee to a theater for these eight musicals based on real-life historical events.
“Hamilton”
Lin-Manuel Miranda’s groundbreaking (and Grammy-winning) new rap musical wowed audiences when it premiered Off-Broadway last year, and is now playing to packed houses at the Richard Rodgers Theatre on Broadway. Based on the life and times of Alexander Hamilton (and his cohorts Washington, Jefferson, and Madison), the patriotic show’s multi-cultural casting choices, hip-hop stylings, and historically-inspired lyrics are fresh, intelligent, and endlessly entertaining.
“Assassins”
Leave it to Stephen Sondheim to create a musical based on presidential assassination attempts. Sondheim’s genius strikes yet again with this 1990 hit, which features villainous historical figures throughout U.S. history including John Wilkes Booth, Charles Guiteau, and Lee Harvey Oswald, and inspired songs like “November 22, 1963” and “Everybody’s Got the Right.”
“1776”
This Tony Award-winning musical has enjoyed countless revivals since its 1969 premiere, schooling theater-lovers on the signing of the United States Declaration of Independence. Though the story is dramatized for the stage, the characters of “1776” (including John and Abigail Adams, Thomas and Martha Jefferson, and Benjamin Franklin) are not. The musical is set in the Continental Congress during the summer of 1776, and though we know how the debate turns out—(it culminates on July 4)—the founding fathers’ lively debate makes for great theater.
“Parade”
Set in 1913 Georgia, this musical from Jason Robert Brown and Alfred Uhry dramatizes the tragic story of Leo Frank, a Jewish factory employee from Georgia, who was unfairly convicted of rape and murder and later lynched by an angry mob. The events of the musical surround Frank’s life and trial, which highlights the birth of the KKK and the Anti-Defamation League, as well as the importance of fair and unbiased due process in court.
“Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson”
Like “Hamilton,” this historically-inspired musical made its New York premiere at the Public Theater before transferring to Broadway in fall of 2010. Also like “Hamilton,” “Bloody Bloody” reframes real-life events and figures with a contemporary lense, depicting the lives of its subjects through rock music and lyrics by Michael Friedman. The plot follows Andrew Jackson and the early days of the U.S. landscape, and the show’s tagline—“History Just Got All Sexypants”—is spot on.
“The Civil War”
Telling the story of the American Civil War from multiple perspectives (and through multiple musical genres), this musical made its Broadway debut in 1999 and ran for a brief 61 performances. It has since made appearances on several regional stages, where its historically-inspired numbers (“A House Divided,” “The Peculiar Institution”) remind audiences of an important chapter in the United States’ past.
“The Scottsboro Boys”
This daring 2010 Kander and Ebb musical retells the story of the historical Scottsboro Boys trial, in which nine African American teens (as young as 12 years old) were accused of rape in 1930s Alabama. A lack of evidence or due process in the ensuing trials exposed glaring racial bias in the U.S. justice system, and this carefully crafted musical highlights that miscarriage through a pointed (and controversial) use of minstrel-style performance.
“Evita”
This Andrew Lloyd Webber hit chronicles the life and political rise of eventual First Lady of Argentina Eva Perón, shedding light on her considerable virtues as well as her vices. The historical show follows Perón’s ambitions from the age of 15 up until her 1952 death from cancer at the age of 33, and couples orchestral music with latin-inspired rock ballads- including the unforgettable “Don’t Cry for Me, Argentina.”
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