Monday, September 28, 2015
Stars came out to honor Emmy and Golden Globe Award-winning actress Debbie Allen (West Side Story, Sweet Charity) at NYC Dance Alliance Foundation at its Bright Lights Shining Stars Gala…
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:25PMFriday, September 4, 2015
A guest post by Kate Edney.
Page from the original souvenir program of Golden Dawn
Golden Dawn (1927) is one of those musicals that has been almost completely erased from histories of …
SOURCE: The New York Public Library at 12:16PMSunday, August 30, 2015
Whether it’s the roots of home or a wild escape from the rat race, most creative types have a place that unlocks their imaginative flow. We asked writers, musicians, artists and directors …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 02:55AMWednesday, August 26, 2015
1880 Broadway director-producer Philip Moeller is born today in New York. Among his greatest theatrical achievements are productions of Biography, Elizabeth the Queen, Mourning Becomes E…
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AMTuesday, August 25, 2015
1918 Birthday of composer Leonard Bernstein (1918-1990), who will bridge the worlds of classical and Broadway, both as conductor for the New York Philharmonic and as composer of classic …
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AMFriday, August 21, 2015
The Library for the Performing Arts is having a photogenic summer. Between Sinatra in the Oenslager Gallery and Geoffrey Holder in the Corridor Gallery, we have many examples of compelling i…
SOURCE: The New York Public Library at 01:16PMThursday, August 20, 2015
It was predicted that New Orleans would take a decade to recover from Hurricane Katrina. On the 10th anniversary of the costliest natural disaster in US history, four residents from very dif…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:10AM1884 Actress Julia Sanderson, one of musical theatre's leading ladies during the first decades of the 20th century, is born today as Julia Sackett. Shows in which she starred included Th…
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:19AMWednesday, August 19, 2015
1873 Birthday of comedian Fred Stone (1873-1959) who, partnered with David Montgomery, became one of the most beloved Broadway performers of the early 20th century. Among their notable h…
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AMTuesday, August 18, 2015
A Desert Island Discs spoof, brooding circus performers who strip naked and a Yoko Ono-inspired love-fest … our critics choose their hot tickets at this year’s fringeO No!In less skilled…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 02:49AM1873 Birthday of Otto Harbach (1873-1963) who will write lyrics and/or book for more than three dozen musicals including Roberta; No, No, Nanette; The Cat and the Fiddle; Rose-Marie …
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AMMonday, August 17, 2015
1871 Playwright Jesse Lynch Williams is born today. During the 1917-1918 theatre season, Williams' play, Why Marry, will win the first-ever Pulitzer Prize for drama.
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AMSaturday, August 15, 2015
1879 The legendary Barrymore theatre family gets one more to add to its roster today as Ethel Barrymore is born. Her father is actor Maurice Barrymore and her brothers are John and Lionel. B…
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AMFriday, August 14, 2015
1888 Comedian DeWolf Hopper debuts his dramatic recitation of the poem Casey at the Bat at Wallack's Theatre. It will become a cornerstone of his act for the next 40 years.
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AMThursday, August 13, 2015
“Elaine Stritch: Still Here,” “Exact Change” and “Naked Hamilton” are among the shows in this year’s FringeNYC, which opens on Friday.
SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 07:37PMWednesday, August 12, 2015
Contact Strips of Anna Held (above) and Lillian Burkhardt
One of the themes of the exhibition Head Shots is the selection process through which performers view options and chose their heads…
SOURCE: The New York Public Library at 04:54PM1881 Birthday of Cecil B. DeMille (1881-1959), who began his career as a Broadway actor in shows including Hearts Are Trumps and To Have and To Hold, and a Broadway playwright and produc…
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AMSunday, August 9, 2015
1967 Playwright Joe Orton is found dead today in his London flat. Also found dead is his companion, writer and actor Kenneth Halliwell. It appears that Halliwell murdered the Loot playwright…
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AMSaturday, August 8, 2015
Star is latest in a line of film actors to be lured by live shows When John Hannah was a young boy in East Kilbride, the son of a toolmaker and a supermarket cleaner, a future as the star of…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 08:52AM1975 Liza Minnelli to the rescue! With only six days to learn the role of merry murderess Roxie Hart, the Academy Award-winning stage and film star agrees to fill in for an ailing Gwen V…
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AMFriday, August 7, 2015
1886 Future stage actress and second wife of Florenz Ziegfeld, Jr., Billie Burke is born today in Washington, D.C. Born Mary William Ethelbert Appleton, Burke spent her childhood in England,…
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AMThursday, August 6, 2015
1947 Today's Variety announces that John Garfield will star in the premiere production of a new Tennessee Williams play, titled A Streetcar Named Desire. As history will have it, however…
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AMWednesday, August 5, 2015
1977 All Broadway marquee lights are dimmed tonight in honor of actor Alfred Lunt who died two days earlier. This is only the third time up to that point that such an action has been taken.
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AMMonday, August 3, 2015
1921 Composer Richard Adler is born today. Along with Jerry Ross he will go on to write two of the most influential musicals of the 1950s: The Pajama Game and Damn Yankees. The successful pa…
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AMSunday, August 2, 2015
Theatre of the Oppressed NYC Artists Respond
SOURCE: Culture Bot at 03:23PMSaturday, August 1, 2015
The Sick of the Fringe initiative highlights the mental health toll of Edinburgh’s endurance testIn Edinburgh from Friday, audiences of festival fringe-goers will sit in the dark in venues…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 01:28PMThursday, July 30, 2015
Ken Davenport, Cody Lassen, Hunter Arnold and Deaf West Theatre announced July 30 that the actors who played the rebellious students in the acclaimed Deaf West production of Steven Sater and…
SOURCE: Playbill at 01:43PMWednesday, July 29, 2015
Image from published sheet music of Little Nemo. Image ID: g99c836_001
A guest post By Brian D. Valencia
In one of two overblown patriotic spectacles, the Act 2 finale of Little Nemo in S…
SOURCE: The New York Public Library at 11:21AMTuesday, July 28, 2015
1920 Two of Broadway's greatest songwriting talents make their mainstem debuts today: lyricst Lorenz Hart, age 25, and composer Richard Rodgers, age 18, open their first musical, Poor Li…
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AMMonday, July 27, 2015
Bertha Kalich. Image ID: TH-25311
While curating Head Shots, we looked for unusual formats that performers believed would represent their careers better than the standard portrait. Or, at…
SOURCE: The New York Public Library at 04:39PMFriday, July 24, 2015
1920 Producer Alexander H. Cohen, known for bringing quality plays to Broadway for six decades, is born today. Lastly represented on Broadway by the Noel Coward play, Waiting in the Wings, s…
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AM 
