Ford's Theatre Society director Paul Tetreault announced the slate on May 25. Liberty Smith, which has a title character connected to major names in the struggle for American independence, will play the historic venue March 23-May 21, 2011.

The musical comedy features music by Michael Weiner, lyrics by Adam Abraham and a book by Marc Madnick, Eric R. Cohen and Adam Abraham, based on an original story by Madnick and Cohen. Matt August will direct.

Here's how Ford's bills the show: "A childhood friend of George Washington, apprentice to Benjamin Franklin and linked to Paul Revere's remarkable ride, the elusive Liberty Smith weaves his way through familiar tales of a young nation. Rife with melody and blazing with adventure, Liberty Smith recalls the lush heyday of the American musical. Experience the birth of America through the eyes of our forgotten founding father: Liberty Smith."

Liberty Smith was previously presented at National Alliance for Musical Theatre's Festival of New Musicals (2000) and the New York Musical Theatre Festival (2005). Ford's Theatre produced a developmental reading in 2006.

The new Ford's season will also feature the return of director Michael Baron's production of A Christmas Carol, adapted by Michael Wilson (Nov. 20, 2010-Jan. 2, 2011); a Stephen Rayne-directed revival of Samuel A. Taylor's romantic comedy about class Sabrina Fair, which inspired the Audrey Hepburn film, "Sabrina," Oct. 1-24; and director Mark Ramont's new production of Horton Foote's The Carpetbagger's Children, a "tapestry of family secrets, small-town lives and private tragedies" in post-Civil War Texas, starring Nancy Robinette, Kimberly Schraf and Holly Twyford, Jan. 21-Feb. 13, 2011. Tickets go on sale to the public Aug. 23.

For more information on Ford's Theatre and the Ford's Theatre Society, visit www.fords.org.

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Since its reopening in 1968, more than a hundred years after the April 14, 1865, assassination of President Abraham Lincoln, Ford's Theatre has been one of the most visited sites in the nation's capital. Ford's Theatre's mission is "to celebrate the legacy of Abraham Lincoln and explore the American experience through theatre and education."

Ford's Theatre Society "works to present the Theatre’s nearly one million visitors each year with a high quality historical and cultural experience, enhancing the vibrancy of this historic site, an important tool for promoting the ideals of leadership, humanity and wisdom espoused by Abraham Lincoln."

For information on the National Park Service and the Ford's Theatre National Historic Site, please visit www.nps.gov/foth.