1918 Actor-manager Henry Miller opens his theatre in New York City. It's designed to seat 1,000 spectators and capable of handling the latest staging innovations. In 1998 the theatre…
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AM1922 Birthday of actor Richard Kiley (1922-1999), who will create memorable roles in mid-20th century musicals, including Kismet, Redhead, No Strings and his signature role, the titl…
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AM1858 Birthday of DeWolf Hopper (1858-1935), vaudeville comedian and musical comedy star, who was featured in Wang, Hoity-Toity and many early Gilbert & Sullivan productions. …
SOURCE: Playbill at 01:14AM1939 Philip Barry tells The Philadelphia Story at the Shubert Theatre in New York. Katharine Hepburn, Van Heflin, Shirley Booth, and Joseph Cotten star. Robert Edmond Jones designs the sets …
SOURCE: Playbill at 09:24PM1950 Joshua Logan transports the action of Anton Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard to 19th century Louisiana for his adaptation, The Wisteria Trees. It will run 165 performances at the Martin…
SOURCE: Playbill at 09:24PM1924 Long before Madonna sang about Vogueing, there were the Vogues of 1924. This revue at the Shubert Theatre stars Fred Allen and Jimmy Savo. It will run for almost three months.
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AM1905 Actor Maurice Barrymore dies today. He was father to Lionel Barrymore, Ethel Barrymore and John Barrymore. He was 57 years old.
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AM1871 Birthday of Lee Shubert, one of the three legendary Shubert brothers who will found the theatre-owning and producing empire, the Shubert Organization.
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AM1909 Irish poet and playwright John Millington Synge dies today. He penned numerous plays including Riders to the Sea and The Playboy of the Western World. For the latter he traveled to the …
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AM1940 It's Separate Rooms for an actress who'd rather sleep with her pet Chihuahua than her playwright husband. Glenda Farrell and Lyle Talbot are the twosome. This comedy by Alan Din…
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AM1912 Karl Malden is born in Chicago, Illinois today. He will appear in numerous Broadway productions, most memorably as Mitch in the original A Streetcar Named Desire.
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AM1867 Florenz Ziegfeld, Jr. is born today in Chicago, Illinois. He will go on to become one of the most powerful showmen ever. His Follies, filled with beautiful women and exciting variety ac…
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AM1828 Birth of Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen (1828-1906), who will revolutionize world theatre with his realistic dramas A Doll's House, Hedda Gabler, Ghosts, Rosmersholm and Peer…
SOURCE: Playbill at 01:00AM1872 Birthday of singer/actress Anna Held, future wife of Florenz Ziegfeld, and the classic sexy French flirt of her era. She will play this role in a series of musical vehicles including La…
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AM1927 Birthday of composer John Kander, who will compose scores for Broadway's Cabaret, Chicago, Kiss of the Spider Woman, Woman of the Year, Zorba and other musicals.
SOURCE: Playbill at 01:00AM1924 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 at the 39th Street Thea…
SOURCE: Playbill at 11:35PM1914 Female impersonator Julian Eltinge is lyricist and star of The Crinoline Girl. Otto Hauerbach provides the book and Percy Wenrich the score. S/he'll twirl at the Knickerbocker Theat…
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AM1926 Sean O'Casey's Juno and the Paycock has its U.S. premiere at Broadway's Mayfair Theatre. It runs 74 performances.
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AM1911 Constance Collier, Tyrone Power (father of the future film star), and Sydney Greenstreet are in the cast of Thais. Paul Wilstach bases his play on the Anatole France story.
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AM1928 It's one for all, and all for almost 10 months of The Three Musketeers. William Anthony McGuire stages his book based on the Alexandre Dumas novel. P.G. Wodehouse and Clifford Grey …
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AM1928 Birthday of playwright Edward Albee, who will go on to write Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, The Goat, Or Who Is Sylvia? and Pulitzer-winners, A Delicate Balance, Seascape and…
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AM1930 Edward Franklin Albee, vaudeville producer and theatre owner, dies today in Palm Beach, Florida. He joined B.F. Keith in the presentation of variety shows and by 1920 had a vaudeville c…
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AM1925 Ernest Truex is The Fall Guy for a group of dope dealers. This James Gleason-George Abbott comedy will run at the Eltinge Theatre for almost three months.
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AM1856 Comedian Eddie Foy is born today. He'll star in vaudeville and on Broadway, notably in Mr. Hamlet of Broadway, The Earl and the Girl and Piff! Paff!! Pouf!!!. His son, Eddie Foy, Jr…
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AM1920 Ziegfeld Girls of 1920 enjoys a 78-performance run at the New Amsterdam Roof Theatre. This revue boasts the talents of Fanny Brice, W.C. Fields, and Eddie Cantor.
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AM1907 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 16 special matinee performances…
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AM1908 Actor Rex Harrison is born today. He will make his London debut in Florence Kilpatrick's Getting George Married. He will star in the London production of Noël Coward's Design f…
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AM1922 Eugene O'Neill's drama The First Man describes the strange tale of a scientist who curses the unborn child in his wife's womb. The wife dies in childbirth and the child thr…
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:33AM1930 Bert Lahr is a Flying High mechanic who breaks an aeronautical record because he doesn't know how to land the plane. The writing team of Buddy DeSylva, Lew Brown and Ray Henderson p…
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AM1900 Composer Kurt Weill is born today in Dessau, Germany. He will compose the score for Bertolt Brecht's Threepenny Opera, and Mahagonny. Among his many works, Lady in the Dark will be …
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:10AM1922 Arthur Wing Pinero's The Enchanted Cottage constructs the story of a couple who find themselves transformed by their love for one another. Owen Nares and Laura Cowie are the lucky p…
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