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The Party of Five

When (notice we didn’t say “if”) you visit the Rotunda of the National Archives in Washington, D.C., you’ll see two large murals on the walls. Painted by Barry Faulker, the one on the left depicts the signing of the Declaration of Independence, and the one on the right depicts the signing of the Constitution. While these murals hold very little historical accuracy in their figures, dress, or location (many signers are omitted, and sadly, there were no togas in 1776), Faulkner did make sure to include John Adams and his “Committee of Five.”

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These men, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Robert Livingston, and Roger Sherman, were instrumental in pushing the Declaration of Independence through the Continental Congress.
This story is the basis of the famous musical 1776, which burst onto Broadway in 1969, winning the Tony Award for Best Musical and was recently revived in 2022. In fact, that cast visited the Rotunda to sing the National Anthem when they were performing at the Kennedy Center.

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This is the Army

Irving Berlin might be best known for his hits like “White Christmas” and “Putting on the Ritz,” but before he was writing most of the Great American Songbook, he was drafted into the army during World War I.

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However, the army didn’t want Berlin to fight so much as use his talents to write patriotic songs. He wrote Yip Yip Yaphanks, a musical revue starring only soldiers. It was his precursor to This Is the Army, the World War II musical that became famous for starring a young, handsome lieutenant named Ronald Reagan in the movie version.

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This Is the Army traveled to Broadway as well as Washington, D.C., where it was seen by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. It moved on to military bases around the world.

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Did you also know that Irving Berlin was the composer and lyricist of the famous patriotic song “God Bless America”? Here he is singing it with President Richard Nixon.

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Some Enchanted Evening

On February 24, 2002, President George Bush hosted a dinner for the National Governors’ Association. At that first NGA/White House event since 9/11, President Bush invited Broadway legend Bernadette Peters to perform a selection of Rodgers and Hammerstein songs. Peters was the spokesperson for New York’s theater/tourism industry after the attack, with a commercial that used the tagline “The Show Must Go On.”

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Bernadette Peters won the Tony Award in 1999 for her portrayal of Annie Oakley in Annie Get Your Gun, an American history musical written by, you guessed it, Irving Berlin. Annie Oakley was a famous sharpshooter who starred in Buffalo Bill’s Wild West. A female icon so talented she has entered American folklore, Annie Oakley was proud to prove, as Berlin wrote, “Anything [men] can do, I can do better.. She even offered 50 of her own trained markswomen, who would provide their own ammunition, to President McKinley if the government ever needed them to fight in a war with Spain.

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History Has Its Eyes on You

Many other presidents have been the subject of Broadway shows. President Lyndon B. Johnson ran for election on the campaign slogan “All the Way with LBJ” in 1964. This slogan inspired the 2014 Tony Award-winning play All the Way starring Bryan Cranston, which details the President’s efforts to inspire and enact the 1964 Civil Rights Act.

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Similarly, the antics of President Andrew Jackson were made musical in the show Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson that debuted in 2006. Why so gory? One of the defining policies of Jackson’s presidency was the Indian Removal Act of 1830, which violently forced 50,000 Indigenous people out of their homes in the Deep South to what is now Oklahoma on the infamous “Trail of Tears.” Jackson proudly wrote to Congress, “It gives me pleasure to announce to Congress that the benevolent policy of the Government, steadily pursued for nearly thirty years, in relation to the removal of the Indians beyond the white settlements is approaching to a happy consummation.”

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Waiting in the Wings

While a few hundred miles from the lights of Broadway, the National Archives has its own theater. Here it is in 1952, when it was up on the fifth floor, right above the Research Room; back then, it was much smaller and accommodated fewer people. Note the old-style projection machines on the back wall.

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Now called the McGowan Theatre, the theater is in the basement and can hold over 300 guests. We often host topical, engaging programs and even theatrical performances there, so come check out our programming. View our current list of programs

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