1776 to Open at Middlesex County's Plays-in-the-Park in Edison

Middlesex County's Plays-in-the-Park production of 1776 is set to open this Wednesday, July 8, 2026. The production runs through July 18, 2026, every night at 8:00 pm, with no Sunday performance. All performances will be held on the open-air stage at the Stephen J. Capestro Theatre in Edison's Roosevelt Park.

It is the summer of 1776, and the nation's founding fathers are debating declaring independence from the shackles of the British Monarchy. The only issue is that our founding fathers all need to agree about it! 1776 follows the story of John Adams, the Congressman from Massachusetts, Benjamin Franklin of Pennsylvania, and Thomas Jefferson of Virginia as they set out to convince the members of the Second Continental Congress to vote for American independence and to sign the Declaration of Independence!

Leading the cast are Maximilian Jurisic as John Adams, Brian Lynch as Benjamin Franklin, and Finnian Burns as Thomas Jefferson, with Matthew Maiolo as John Dickinson, Shane De Lacy as Edward Rutledge, Sean Lynch-Littlejohn as Richard Henry Lee, Jo Ellen Burton as Abigail Adams, Olivia Conti as Martha Jefferson, Mike Patierno as John Hancock, Skyler Reed Lipkind as the Courier, Tom McNeill as Stephen Hopkins, Jason Tamashausky as James Wilson, Jason Benjamin as Charles Thomson, Zachary Lanton as Roger Sherman, Luke Gavin as Robert Livingston, Marc Mundsinger as Lewis Morris, Ed Faver as Andrew McNair, Joey Valenzuela as Samuel Chase, Kurt Abel as Reverend John Witherspoon, Skip Zipf as Caesar Rodney, David Thomas Hampson as Colonel Thomas McKean, James Hahn as George Read, Michael Barthel as Dr. Lyman Hall, Antonio Paz as Joseph Hewes, Jared Cardenas as Dr. Josiah Bartlett, and Abhiroop Doddapaneni-Lingineni as Leather Apron/Painter.

1776 is directed by Ed Carlo, with musical direction by John Brzozowski, and choreography by Susie Paplow. The production features set design by Mike D'Arcy, lighting design by Roman Klima, sound design by Chris Cichon, costume design by Christina Gillespie, and wig design by Alyson Pemoulié Halter.