To help you enjoy this national holiday we're bringing you the top 5 Broadway shows celebrating labor rights and the American workforce:

Americana

This 1926 musical revue featured music by the Gershwins, Sam Lewis, and Arthur Schwartz, but the most popular number was written by Jay Gorney and Yip Harburg. "Brother Can You Spare a Dime?" spoke to the hardships of the former working class during the Great Depression and has come to epitomize that era and struggle.

Pins and Needles

This musical revue was created and performed by the International Ladies Garment Workers Union to entertain and educate their workers on social and political issues. With music and lyrics by newcomer Harold Rome, the 1937 musical became such a great success that the performers were able to quit their factory jobs. Barbra Streisand, whose Broadway debut was in a musical written by Rome (I Can Get It For You Wholesale), sings on the 25th Anniversary recording of Pins and Needles:

The Pajama Game

The 1954 musical is based on Richard Bissell's novel 7 1/2 Cents. The show tells the story of workers in a pajama factory who go on strike, demanding a seven-and-a-half-cent raise. Though it is at times lighthearted, romantic, and sentimental, the show still manages to send a strong message about the importance of workers' rights. Listen to the song inspired by Bissell's title:

Ragtime

This show centers around three characters from disparate parts of American society at the turn of the 20th century: an African American musician living in Harlem, a wealthy upper-class family in the suburbs, and an immigrant Jewish family living on the Lower East Side. These characters are connected by historical figures such as Harry Houdini, J.P. Morgan, Henry Ford, and Emma Goldman. It is Goldman who gives voice to the workers' cause in the song "The Night That Goldman Spoke at Union Square."

Newsies

The recent Broadway production of Newsies is actually an adaptation of a Disney film about the New York City Newsboys Strike of 1899. Both the film and the musical send an empowering message to youth about their ability to stand-up for their rights. Perhaps the greatest of those moments is when the 'newsies' breakout into song as they decide to go on strike: