Township resident in ‘1776’

Branch Woodman, a township resident, is currently in the Paper Mill Playhouse production of “1776,” the musical about the personalities and decisions surrounding the creation of the Declaration of Independence.

With book by Peter Stone and music/lyrics by Sherman Edwards, “1776” opened on Broadway March 16, 1969, and was nominated for six Tony Awards, winning three including Best Musical.

Born in Los Angeles, Woodman, who will be appearing as Connecticut delegate Roger Sherman and backup for the Benjamin Franklin role, started dancing at five and was in community theater at seven.

“I just stayed in the theater the whole time and did a lot of different levels,” he said. “There were so many opportunities that got me here today. When you’re a kid, theater is all fun. You’re not paying the bills.”

Although both his parents were educators, Woodman did not attend college.

“My mother was a singer and there were five kids,” he said. ‘We all had the opportunity to find our own way and make our own choices. I’m the only one who landed in the arts.”

When he was 12, he had the opportunity to tour with a production of “The Music Man.” His mother asked the producer what she was supposed to do with her other kids because she could not just leave them.

“My parents never let what I did be the focus of the family,” Woodman said. “It kept me focused on not having the family revolve around me.”

It felt natural, he said, to do something further away from home and in his early 20s became involved with summer stock theater and did that for a few years. One step led to another and in 1989 joined Actors’ Equity and moved to New York City.

“We had lost a lot of theater in California,” he said. “When I joined the union, I realized I had to go where there’s more work. Nothing beats New York.

It’s where people come to find their talent. I had never been to New York, but I wasn’t scared or had any trepidation. I had friends here so I just did it.”
The year after coming to NYC, he saw his first Broadway theater production: the original “1776.”

“I’ve never forgotten it,” he said. “It’s been on my bucket list since then.”

Woodman said his character, Roger Sherman, is the only person to sign all four of America’s founding documents: the Declaration of Independence (1776), the Articles of Confederation (1781), the Constitution (1787) and the Bill of Rights (1791).

These documents are referred to as the Charters of Freedom. The Articles of Confederation served as the country’s constitution until being replaced.

Woodman said Sherman was a self-educated lawyer and cobbler by trade; the earliest-born congressman in the first congress and the first congressman
to die.

“‘1776’ is a very strong piece of theater,” he continued, “and its construction is interesting. It doesn’t have a lot of songs. It’s also an extremely strong score with all the color and tone of the Revolutionary period. You feel the drum and fife, you feel the time period. It doesn’t feel ‘60s at all, when it was written.”

Joining the cast has been a “gripping” experience for him, getting to know better the origins of this country and, in his estimation, where we are now.

“Being inside the piece, I find it very moving,” he said. “You wouldn’t think something from the ‘60s would be quite so moving, but it is.”

As he has gotten older, Woodman’s bucket list has changed, too.

“Some roles have passed by,” he said. “But new ones have taken their place. I’d love to do ‘La Cage aux Folles.’ There was another on Broadway, ‘The Prom.’ If I get to do these, I’ll take them off my bucket list. I’ve been lucky. Anything after these is icing on the cake.”

“The Prom” is about four former Broadway stars who band together to support a girl prohibited from attending her prom because she wanted to bring another girl as her date.

Branch’s other credits include Broadway appearances in “Hello, Dolly!,” “Cinderella,” “Bye Bye Birdie” and “Crazy For You.”