The Patriots is a play written in a prologue and three acts bySidney Kingsley in 1943. It won theNew York Drama Critics' Circle award for Best Play, and ran for 173 performances.
Thomas Jefferson has just returned fromFrance, hoping to relax with his daughters atMonticello.George Washington however, has a favor to ask of him. Hit by tough political opposition, specifically afraid of rising monarch strength, he urges Jefferson to become hisSecretary of State. Jefferson accepts, albeit grudgingly. Not long after, he is battling his archrival,Alexander Hamilton, aFederalist just before his election in 1800.
The show played at theNational Theatre and was directed byShepard Traube (1907–1983),[1] produced byPlaywrights' Company andRowland Stebbins, music byStanley Bate, scenic design byHoward Bay, costume design byRose Bogdanoff andToni Ward, and lighting design byMoe Hack.
The cast on opening night was:
The play has been presented on television twice, by NBC in 1963 (starringCharlton Heston as Thomas Jefferson,John Fraser as Alexander Hamilton, andHoward St. John as George Washington) and in 1976 by PBS (starringRobert Murch as Thomas Jefferson,Philip LeStrange as Alexander Hamilton, andRalph Clanton as George Washington), but it has never been made into a theatrical film.
Ironically, the first telecast, in 1963, took place on November 15, one week before the assassination of PresidentJohn F. Kennedy. The 1976 telecast is available on DVD.
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