Thursday, October 9, 2014
1893 Arthur Wing Pinero courts scandal with his play The Second Mrs. Tanqueray, about a man who brings misery to all with a second marriage. Mrs. Patrick Campbell plays the title character a…
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AMWednesday, October 8, 2014
1857 Birth of Edward Franklin Albee, who, with B.F. Keith, controlled one of the biggest circuits in vaudeville in the early 20th century. Also, grandfather and namesake of Pulitzer-winn…
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AMTuesday, October 7, 2014
1907 The Gay White Way, a musical revue whose title meant something quite different in that innocent era, opens at the Casino Theatre for a then-healthy run of 105 performances. Blanche …
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AMSaturday, October 4, 2014
1880 Writer Damon Runyon, whose short story "The Idyll of Miss Sarah Brown" will go on to form the basis for the musical Guys and Dolls, is born today.
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AMFriday, October 3, 2014
1859 Eleanora Duse born in Italy. One of the leading actresses of her day, "The Great Duse" will champion the realistic playwrights of the early 20th century, and will have some of…
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AMWednesday, October 1, 2014
1928 Mae West's controversial play Pleasure Man opens at the Biltmore Theatre. It's the story of an actor who has impregnated so many women that the brother of one of them takes up a…
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AMTuesday, September 30, 2014
1915 The huge Hippodrome Theatre opens one of its most successful extravaganzas, Hip! Hip! Hooray!. Described by the New York Times as "a gargantuan spectacle, smarter and more sumptuou…
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:16AMFriday, September 26, 2014
1898 Composer George Gershwin is born in New York. He'll go on to write Porgy and Bess, "Rhapsody in Blue," Girl Crazy and the Pulitzer Prize-winning musical, Of Thee I Sin…
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AMThursday, September 25, 2014
1928 Chee-Chee, Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart's musical about castration in ancient China, opens to searing reviews and goes on to close after just 31 performances, the team's …
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AMWednesday, September 24, 2014
1902 Cheryl Crawford (1902-1986), one of the most powerful and influential women in Broadway history, is born today. As producer and/or director, she will have a decisive hand in product…
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AMTuesday, September 23, 2014
Monday, September 22, 2014
1921 The Music Box Revue of 1921 is the premiere performance at the new Music Box Theatre, which opened on 45th Street today. This is the first edition of the Revue, itself the first to exhi…
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AMSunday, September 21, 2014
1896 This day marks Florenz Ziegfeld's debut as a Broadway producer. The Parlor March opens at the Herald Square Theatre, starring Anna Held (his mistress and later wife). Ziegfeld's…
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AMThursday, September 18, 2014
1911 Disraeli, a new drama, opens tonight on Broadway at the Wallack's Theatre. It stars George Arliss as the British prime minister in this play by Louis N. Parker. Arliss' memorabl…
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AMWednesday, September 17, 2014
1879 The Daly Theatre opens at Broadway and Thirtieth Street in New York.
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AMMonday, September 15, 2014
1889 Robert Benchley, the acclaimed actor, critic, and humorist of the early Twentieth Century, is born today. Benchley will marry Gertrude Darling and make his stage debut in this month in …
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AMSunday, September 14, 2014
1910 Birthday of Lehman Engel (1910-1982), the Tony-winning Broadway conductor who will found the BMI Musical Theatre Workshop. Among the shows he will conduct are original productio…
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AMSaturday, September 13, 2014
1894 Birthday of British playwright J.B. Priestley (1894-1984), author of plays An Inspector Calls, When We Are Married, Laburnum Grove and A Severed Head.
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AMFriday, September 12, 2014
1866 The Broadway musical is born. The Black Crook opens at Niblo's Garden, a musical extravaganza featuring a melodramatic plot and scantily-dressed ballerinas who serve as chorus g…
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AMWednesday, September 10, 2014
1915 Fanny Brice is reviewed in Variety for her performance at the Palace. Variety says that when she "learns to refrain from starting to disrobe before she is out of sight of the audie…
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AMTuesday, September 9, 2014
A day after Broadway League executive director Charlotte St. Martin stated that the lights of Broadway theatres would not be dimmed in memory of Joan Rivers, representatives for the trade or…
SOURCE: Playbill at 01:03PM1873 Birthday of influential director Max Reinhardt (1873-1943) in Austria-Hungary. He will stage innovative productions of The Eternal Road, Sumurun and A Midsummer Night's Drea…
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AMSunday, September 7, 2014
1909 Director Elia Kazan is born. Kazan would go on to direct the award-winning plays Death of a Salesman and A Streetcar Named Desire. His success reached to the silver screen as well. …
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AMSaturday, September 6, 2014
1919 The Actors' Equity strike is settled at 3 AM, and some shows reopen today.
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AMFriday, September 5, 2014
The box office for the Booth Theatre, home to the revival of The Elephant Man starring Bradley Cooper, opens for business Sept. 5.
SOURCE: Playbill at 11:51AM1881 Birthday of B. Iden Payne (1881-1976) a producer and playwright, who, as a professor at the University of Texas, inspired three generations of Broadway artists, including Tommy Tune…
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AMTuesday, August 12, 2014
Saturday, August 2, 2014
Famous for playing Danish detective Sarah Lund, Gråbøl tackles roles of two powerful women a queen and a governor in TV thriller Continue reading...
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:05PMMonday, July 28, 2014
Iford Manor, Bradford-upon-Avon: Baroque opera used to be regarded as a specialist taste, but it can be extremely immediate in its impact when done well. Sung in Christopher Cowell's En…
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 06:49AMSaturday, July 26, 2014
Clothes make the comedian at this year's fringe as acts seem to have fallen under the spell of Downton Abbey Continue reading...
SOURCE: The Guardian at 09:04AMThursday, July 17, 2014
Elaine Stritch, the brassy, tart-tongued Broadway actress and singer who became a living emblem of show business durability and perhaps the leading interpreter of Stephen Sondheim's wryly ac…
SOURCE: National Post (Canada) at 02:16PM 
