Tag: Playbill Vault

1906 John Philip Sousa supplies the music for The Free Lance. Herbert Gresham stages the 35 performance run at the New Amsterdam Theatre on Broadway.…

Next to Normal, starring Alice Ripley, opens on Broadway in 2009. 1929 In The Camel Through the Needle’s Eye, Miriam Hopkins plays a poor woman…

Bye Bye Birdie, starring Dick Van Dyke and Chita Rivera, opens on Broadway in 1960. 1865 Our American Cousin, starring Laura Keene, is in performance…

In 2001, Faith Prince stars in a Broadway revival of Bells Are Ringing. 1905 The colossal Hippodrome Theatre opens on Broadway. The inaugural production is…

In 1991, the original Broadway production of Miss Saigon opens starring Lea Salonga. 1914 Mrs. Patrick Campbell and Herbert Beerbohm Tree are the very first…

In 2011, Aaron Tveit stars on Broadway in Catch Me If You Can. 1868 Birthday of master actor George Arliss, who stars in a series…

In 1964, John Gielgud directs Richard Burton in Hamlet on Broadway. 1926 Actor-manager Henry Miller dies in New York at age 66. He acted opposite…

In 1949, South Pacific opens on Broadway. 1913 On The Purple Road there’s a disguised Napoleon waiting to woo an unsuspecting girl named Wanda. Valli…

The first Broadway revival of Evita opens in 2012. 1906 Britain’s first actor-MP, A.E.W. Mason, delivers his first speech. The theatre community sees this as…

In 1971, Stephen Sondheim and James Goldman’s Follies makes its Broadway debut. 1921 Sarah Bernhardt, who recently had one leg amputated, comes to London to…

In 2008, Kelli O’Hara and Paulo Szot star in a Broadway revival of South Pacific. 1911 Minnie Maddern Fiske stars as Mrs. Bumpstead-Leigh, a woman…

In 1999, Orfeh, Sara Ramirez, and Patrick Wilson star on Broadway in The Gershwins’ Fascinating Rhythm. 1923 There’s trouble At Mrs. Beam’s—the boardinghouse keeper thinks…

In 1993, Julie Andrews stars Off-Broadway in the Sondheim revue Putting It Together. 1918 Actor-manager Henry Miller opens his theatre in New York City. It’s…

In 1943, the original Broadway production of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Oklahoma! opens. 1922 Birthday of actor Richard Kiley, who creates memorable roles in musicals including…

Newsies opens on Broadway in 2012. 1950 Joshua Logan transports the action of Anton Chekhov‘s The Cherry Orchard to 19th century Louisiana for his adaptation,…

1939 Philip Barry tells The Philadelphia Story at the Shubert Theatre in New York. Katharine Hepburn, Van Heflin, Shirley Booth, and Joseph Cotten star. Robert…

In 2008, Patti LuPone stars in a Broadway revival of Gypsy. 1924 Long before Madonna sang about Vogueing, there were the Vogues of 1924. The…

In 1964, Funny Girl, starring Barbra Streisand, opens on Broadway. 1905 Actor Maurice Barrymore dies at age 57. He was father to Lionel Barrymore, Ethel…

In 2018, the Broadway revival of Tony Kushner’s Angels in America opens; Andrew Garfield and Nathan Lane go on to win Tonys for the performances.…

In 2011, The Book of Mormon opens on Broadway. 1909 Irish poet and playwright John Millington Synge dies at age 38. He penned numerous plays…

Happy birthday to Stephen Sondheim and Andrew Lloyd Webber. 1912 Karl Malden is born in Chicago, Illinois. He appears in numerous Broadway productions, most memorably…

In 2019, Ain’t Too Proud brings the story of The Temptations to Broadway. 1867 Florenz Ziegfeld Jr. is born in Chicago, Illinois. He goes on…

In 2014, Disney’s Aladdin opens on Broadway. 1828 Birth of Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen, who revolutionizes world theatre with his realistic dramas A Doll’s House,…

In 1998, Alan Cumming and Natasha Richardson star in a Broadway revival of Cabaret. 1872 Birthday of singer and actor Anna Held, future wife of…

In 2012, the musical Once opens on Broadway. 1927 Birthday of composer John Kander, who composes scores for Broadway’s Cabaret, Chicago, Kiss of the Spider…

1924 Doris Keane and Jacob Ben-Ami are Welded. Eugene O’Neill‘s drama outlines a marriage that is stronger than the couple realizes. It lasts three weeks…

The original Broadway production of 1776 opens on this date in 1969. 1914 Female impersonator Julian Eltinge is lyricist and star of The Crinoline Girl.…

Purlie, starring Melba Moore and Cleavon Little, opens on Broadway in 1970. 1926 Sean O’Casey‘s Juno and the Paycock has its U.S. premiere at Broadway’s…

Paul Newman and Geraldine Page open in Sweet Bird of Youth in 1959. 1925 Ernest Truex is The Fall Guy for a group of dope…

In the Heights opens on Broadway on this date in 2008. 1856 Comedian Eddie Foy is born. He stars in vaudeville and on Broadway, notably…

In 2015, Helen Mirren stars on Broadway in The Audience. 1920 Ziegfeld Girls of 1920 enjoys a run at the New Amsterdam Roof Theatre. This…

1907 The Herald Square Theatre in New York hosts the American premiere of Widower’s Houses. George Bernard Shaw‘s comedy is offered by the Shuberts in…

Happy birthday to Godspell, Pippin, and Wicked composer Stephen Schwartz. 1933 Maxwell Anderson indicts Both Your Houses, a political story at the Royale Theatre. Morris…

In 1993, Martin Short and Bernadette Peters star in the musical The Goodbye Girl. 1922 Eugene O’Neill‘s drama The First Man describes the strange tale…

In 2005, Norbert Leo Butz, John Lithgow, and Sherie Rene Scott star in Dirty Rotten Scoundrels on Broadway. 1930 Bert Lahr is a Flying High…

In 1979, Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler’s Sweeney Todd opens on Broadway. 1922 Arthur Wing Pinero‘s The Enchanted Cottage constructs the story of a couple…

Today’s birthdays include Zero Mostel, Tommy Tune, and Bernadette Peters. 1894 Birthday of playwright Ben Hecht, author or co-author of The Front Page, Twentieth Century,…

In 2003, Richard Greenberg’s Take Me Out opens on Broadway. 1848 English actor Ellen Terry is born. She makes her American debut in 1883 with…

In 1989, Jerome Robbins’ Broadway opens at the Imperial Theatre. 1911 Chicago’s Columbia Theatre opens its doors. Architect J.E.O. Pridmore designed the house which seats…

In 1973, A Little Night Music opens on Broadway. 1900 Birthday of Broadway producer and director Jed Harris, who presents The Royal Family, Broadway, Our…

In 1955, Cole Porter’s Silk Stockings opens on Broadway. 1876 Birthday of Broadway comedian Victor Moore, who stars or co-stars in the original casts of…