Broadway has been staging democracy for almost a century. Long before cast albums and streaming captures, playwrights and composers were sending up campaigns, dramatizing conventions, and asking who gets a voice in the American story. Some of these shows won the Pulitzer Prize. Some started national conversations. All of them prove that civic life makes great theatre.
Here are eight Broadway plays and musicals about democracy, elections, and voting, in the order they premiered.
George and Ira Gershwin's musical satire follows John P. Wintergreen, who runs for president on a platform of love. It opened at the Music Box Theatre in December 1931 and ran for 441 performances. In 1932 it became the first musical ever to win the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. The Pulitzer committee praised it as a true satire of American politics and the public's attitude toward them. Nearly a century later, the jokes about campaign gimmicks still land.
Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse's comedy follows an idealistic businessman being groomed for a presidential run, and the compromises that come with it. It won the 1946 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. It's a reminder that questions about money, ambition, and integrity in campaigns are anything but new.
This musical by Jerry Bock, Sheldon Harnick, Jerome Weidman, and George Abbott tells the story of Fiorello La Guardia, the reform-minded congressman who became one of New York City's most famous mayors. It ran for 795 performances and won the 1960 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. It's a love letter to local politics and to the idea that one determined person can change a city.
Gore Vidal's drama takes place behind the scenes at a presidential nominating convention, where two candidates fight for their party's endorsement. It asks how far a decent person should go to win. The play has returned to Broadway more than once, and its convention-floor maneuvering feels familiar every election cycle.
Sherman Edwards and Peter Stone's musical brings the Second Continental Congress to life as delegates argue, stall, and finally vote for independence. It won the Tony Award for Best Musical. A 2022 Broadway revival recast the founders with a company of women, transgender, and nonbinary performers, inviting audiences to ask who was in the room, and who wasn't.
Lin-Manuel Miranda's hip-hop history of Alexander Hamilton follows the founding generation through revolution, the Constitution, and the messy business of building a government. It won 11 Tony Awards and the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Its lyrics about the election of 1800 have turned a lot of fans into history buffs.
In Heidi Schreck's play, she recreates the constitutional debate competitions that paid her way through college, then traces how the Constitution has shaped the lives of four generations of women in her family. It opened on Broadway in March 2019, was a finalist for the 2019 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, and earned two Tony nominations, including Best Play. Every performance ends with a live debate about the document itself.
Shaina Taub's musical tells the story of the final, turbulent years of the fight for women's right to vote. Taub wrote the book, music, and lyrics and starred as suffragist Alice Paul. The show opened at the Music Box Theatre in April 2024. That's the same theatre where Of Thee I Sing opened more than 90 years earlier. Taub won the 2024 Tony Awards for Best Book and Best Original Score. A filmed version of the Broadway production was recorded for PBS's Great Performances.
These shows span almost a century, but they share a theme: democracy is a participatory art. It only works when people show up for it. The characters in these stories argue, organize, campaign, and vote. Theatre can't vote for us, but it can remind us why it matters.
That's the idea behind Broadway for Democracy. We use the platform and public reach of Broadway to inspire voter engagement, and we do it without telling anyone who to vote for.
Ready for your own curtain call? Check your voter registration, read our voting guide for theatre workers, or explore our guide to Broadway nonprofits.
