Based on the award-winning Broadway production, this musical celebrates the founding of the United States of America. The story centers around familiar historical characters as they organize a movement for independence from Mother England: Tough, unyielding John Adams; the charming and pragmatic Ben Franklin; the brilliant young Thomas  Jefferson, who is chosen to write the Declaration even as he longs for the company of his new bride, Martha; and the rest of the Continental Congress. All events lead to the July 4, 1776, signing of the Declaration. (1972. 2 hours, 21  minutes).