The Roundabout Theater Company's revival of 1776 opened to lackluster reviews. Though applying exciting casting with a fully female, transgender and non-binary cast, critics felt the rest of the changes made for this revival, from new arrangements and orchestrations to staging and acting was heavy-handed, muddy, over the top and cartoony. Though select performances and songs stood out and no one begrudged the casting updates in principle, many seemed to be wishing this mounting had been a new diversely cast musical exploring the founding of our country, rather than a heavy-handed reworking of an old musical, revolutionary for its time.