I’ve just started teaching Hamilton for the year (using much of the musical, duh), and it’s really gotten me thinking about historical musicals. I love these pieces that bring music and humanity to real-life people. In addition to Hamilton, there are pieces like Anastasia and 1776, that I love. And I would love to see more musicals that tell real stories. Here are a few possible historical figures I’d like to see musicals about:

  • Harriet Tubman – Talk about an intense, haunting musical. I would love to hear the ballads written for this heroine of the Underground Railroad. And it would be a starmaking opportunity for the actress who got to play her.
  • The Kennedys – Okay, I admit it. I’ve been intrigued by the Kennedys for a long time. Their story has intrigue, glamor, power, politics, and tragedy. There have been plenty of plays based on them (The Best Man, anyone?), so now I’d like to see how music could help interpret their lives.
  • The Fitzgeralds – Zelda and F. Scott had one of the most intriguing marriages ever. They loved each other but had so many issues all the same. It’s rife with drama, and I think it would make a very dramatic show.
  • The Women’s Suffrage Movement – Susan B. Anthony, Lucretia Mott, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Ida B. Wells… Okay, so I’m not going to list all of them, but these powerful women brought American women closer to the right to vote. Give me a musical like Assassins (without the Assassins) where they all come together and make changes. I want to walk out of that theatre singing!