STORY

The drama begins as Benjamin Franklin travels to London, England, to make a last ditch-attempt in avoiding hostilities between the Crown and her colonies. After violently political acts like the Boston Tea Party, Franklin makes the trip across the Atlantic to try and cool heads and hearts with the King’s Privy Council before tensions turn to gunpowder.

SONG: 'Sing A Peace'

Deftly rebuked by the Crown, Franklin returns to Philadelphia and the Continental Congress, now assuring them that they are now no longer on a Colonial Road, but an American one, and it has come time to make a ‘Declaration of Independence’ from England. 

SONG: 'American Road'
SONG: 'A Declaration'

With Independence then declared, Congress fears they have not the leader to defend this new ‘United States’ from the British, who possess the greatest army and navy in the world. Who can they turn to? The answer to the question is a man who sits among them, a tall Virginian named George Washington.

SONG: 'Washington'

With the Revolutionary War started, Benjamin Franklin, who must go to Europe, begins a correspondence with his beloved daughter, Sally, in Philadelphia. She is a mother who, despite being a patriot, laments the tragic reality of her sons taking arms against the Imperial Army of Britain, as well as the fate of her fledgling country.

SONG: 'A Woman's Place In A Man's War'

British General Cornwallis, jeopardized by the brilliant maneuvers of Washington’s forces in York, Pennsylvania, attempts to forge a stratagem around his likely defeat–unless the forces of his superior officer, General Hale, will move south from New York City to assist him. Hale does not, dooming Cornwallis and ending the war.

SONG: 'Yorktown'

After many months of industry, ingenuity, and negotiation among themselves, Congress forges the most noble doctrine in human history: the Constitution of the United States of America. It fortifies that citizens of the American Republic will indeed possess their rights as bestowed by God–not the government.

SONG: 'A Constitution'

Just seven years after the Constitution is ratified, Franklin lies on his deathbed at age 84. However, he is then visited by an angel named Grace, who presents him with a rare and blessed opportunity. Would he agree to live on and see what comes of his newborn nation–upon the American Road?

President Thomas Jefferson makes the ‘Louisiana Purchase’ in 1803. Suddenly, the United States expands by nearly half, opening a bridge to explore all the way into the Oregon Territories. Almost immediately, Jefferson dispatches Lewis and Clark and the ‘Corps of Discovery’ to map a path from the Columbia River to the Pacific Ocean.

SONG: 'Corps of Discovery'

Leading to the War of 1812, the British pirate American ships and kidnap sailors. They then burn the city of Washington in the fighting. In New Orleans, Andrew Jackson rallies the citizens and scofflaws of the Bayou to hold off the English Army. The famous battle–a tremendous rout–ends the war with definitive American might.

SONG: 'New Orleans'

Franklin meets the American pioneers making their way West! They will meet the harshest of challenges before them, including sickness, bad weather, broken roads, and inhospitable Indians. Nonetheless, many will make it, and make the West their new home.

SONG: 'Head West'' 

The Great American Civil War rages. The country is torn apart by the terrible issue of slavery. The South will not give up the trade, the North will not abide. President Lincoln swears to protect the Union, agonizing as American brother fights American brother on the battlefields of the South.

SONG: 'Brother vs. Brother' 

Lincoln posts the ‘Emancipation Proclamation’ throughout the United States, thereby freeing all American slaves by a legal executive order of the President. It is an emotional and political move by Lincoln, and the news reverberates through the nation, creating a moral and spiritual momentum that buoys the North.

SONG: 'The Lord Showed Me A Sign'

Chosen by Lincoln to prosecute the end of the war by any means, General Ulysses S. Grant takes Richmond while his subordinate, General Sherman, marches his troops through the Confederate line to the Atlantic, forcing the indomitable Robert E. Lee into surrender at Appomattax.

SONG: 'When Grant Took Richmond'

Only two weeks after the Civil War ends, President Abraham Lincoln is assassinated at the Ford Theatre by John Wilkes Booth, a famous actor from the South. Benjamin Franklin, having found a truly kindred American soul, is heartbroken. Our country loses the Savior of the Republic. Act I ends.

SONG: 'The Death of Abraham'

The Transcontinental Railroad, one of the great labor and engineering marvels of our age, is completed, forever tying the East to its West by rail. It changes the face of America and allows commerce to accelerate and expand by great measure.

SONG: 'Transcontinental Railroad'

Thomas Edison, through endless trial, finds the correct recipe (with an assist by Ben Franklin), to produce consistent electricity and revolutionizes the world’s ideas of energy and production . Within months he powers an entire city block and the Electrical Age is upon America and the world.

SONG: 'Electricity'

‘The Industrial Age’ of Europe produces what is called the ‘The Gilded Age’ in America. Corrupt Industrialist Jay Gould lords over his golden class and echelon of riches, while the working minions that produce his fortune are exploited with impunity.

SONG: 'The Gilded Age'

President Theodore Roosevelt is thrust upon the country with the assassination of William McKinley. ‘Teddy’ Roosevelt is a driven man of great intellect that immediately sets his mind–and the power of his office–to destroy the business monopolies and trusts fixed in America.

SONG: 'Panama Canal'

The Statue of Liberty stands as a beacon of liberty and opportunity to thousands of immigrants arriving in New York from the Old World. It towers as a symbol of America, a symbol so many have only dreamed of, but now, at the turn of the 20th Century, they now hold in their hands, as well as their hearts.

SONG: 'Statue of Liberty'

The 18th Amendment to the Constitution, known as ‘Prohibition’ (of alcohol sales and establishments), blindsides the nation and creates a popular backlash of urban ‘bootleggers’, ‘speakeasies’ and rampant gangster rule, bringing about the legend of Al Capone in Chicago.

SONG: 'Speakeasy'

After a massive stock market crash in 1929, ‘The Great Depression’ delivers double-digit unemployment to America, and many experience extreme poverty that forces them into makeshift communities called ‘Hoovervilles’, named after President Hubert Hoover.

SONG: 'Depression'

Forced into World War II with the bombing of Pearl Harbor naval base in 1941, the ‘Yanks’ show the world how fighting is done, with the activation of the great American nation in full industry, stratagem, and true fighting grit. Like in WW I, the G.I. saves the day. By 1945, ‘V-E Day’ (Victory In Europe) is declared, with the surrender of the Japanese empire coming just months later.

SONG: 'Send In The Yanks'

The Russians deliver ‘Sputnik’ into space! America, immersed now in the ‘Cold War’ against the USSR, collectively fear the Soviets have surpassed them in the technology of the future. It is an identity crisis that embraces the nation and compels them to react.

SONG: 'Sputnik!'

In 1969, the dreams and plans of President Eisenhower, Kennedy, and NASA come alive with the first lunar landing. Putting a man on the moon, and more distinctly, planting an the American flag there, won the ‘Space Race’ convincingly, and may have contributed to the disintegration of Soviet Russia.

SONG: 'Man Up To The Moon'

The North American Free-Trade Agreement (NAFTA), was, at once, ‘Globalism’ for the United States. Espousing ideals of cheaper consumer products and evolving visions of commerce, it shipped thousands of factories and jobs to Mexico, destroying countless lives and communities in working America.

SONG: 'Grand Scheme of Things'

On September 11, 2001, 19 Al-Qaeda Islamists fly four highjacked jet planes into the American homeland, the deadliest terror attack in history. The Twin Towers of the World Trade Center fall in New York as nearly 3000 die; the nation watching in horror.

SONG: '9-11'

Wall Street, once again left to its devices, creates a global housing bubble that bursts right on cue in 2008, the end of the Bush presidency. Millions lose their jobs and homes, while the federal government makes the decision to bail out major failed banks (and, in essence, Wall Street), calling them “too big to fail.”

Barrack Obama becomes the first Black president of the United States. His ‘Hope And Change’ rhetoric sweeps the nation as he catapults over Hillary Clinton in the Democratic Primary. After two terms, his legacy remains one of rhetoric, as U.S. growth is stagnant and the federal government, Wall Street, and the American intelligence apparatus grows in power.

SONG: 'Hope And Change'

The year of 2016 opened the door on a chapter of America unseen of before. Leading to the near-complete corruption of American media, the presidency and the relentless persecution of Donald Trump, Covid-19, a dubious 2020 election, and Trump’s near-assassination in Butler, Pennsylvania, just months before he re-claimed the White House, it has already become legend.

SONG: '2016'

On July 4th, 2026, the United States of America celebrates its 250th birthday upon the signing of its great Declaration of Independence in 1776. Its history is often hard to believe. The spirit of Benjamin Franklin reflects on his travels and takes one last walk on the American Road before saying goodbye.

SONG: 'That's What Makes America Great'

Coming to the end of his sojourn down the American Road, Franklin takes in a last gathering of friends and family in a final Thanksgiving celebration. Ben wishes them all well in their travels to come, and advises them “to reflect, time and again, of their history”.

SONG: 'A Republic'

It is time for Benjamin Franklin to rest. He returns to his bed and softly falls asleep, while Grace and the ensemble of ‘American Road’ wish him the fondest farewell. Their history onstage, like their great tale of America, appears in their final song, ‘A Dream of Ben Franklin’.

SONG: 'A Dream of Ben Franklin'