Wednesday, July 27, 2011
1982 Little Shop of Horrors begins a 2,209-performance run today at Off-Broadway's Orpheum Theatre. Based on the Roger Corman cult classic about a man-eating plant, this Alan Menken-Howa…
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AMTuesday, July 26, 2011
1856 A Dramatic genius is born today in the person of George Bernard Shaw. Among Shaw's many playwriting credits will be Pygmalion, Man and Superman and Saint Joan. The former play, a co…
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AMMonday, July 25, 2011
1853 Birthday of Broadway impresario David Belasco, namesake of the Belasco Theatre, who wrote and/or produced dozens of plays including DuBarry, Zaza and Laugh, Clown, Laugh!, and two that …
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AMFriday, July 22, 2011
1912 The Shubert Brothers present the first of their annual Passing Show installments tonight. Passing Show of 1912 features Charlotte Greenwood, Trixie Friganza, and Eugene and Willie Howar…
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AMTuesday, July 19, 2011
1938 Stage and film actor Burgess Meredith divorces Margaret Perry today. Perry, an actress, is the daughter of Antoinette Perry, after whom the Tony Awards are named. The union was rather s…
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AMSunday, July 17, 2011
1953 Actress Maude Adams dies today. Born in 1873, Adams, at the age of 32, played the title role in James M. Barrie's Peter Pan when it had its American premiere at the Empire Theatre i…
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:01AMSaturday, July 16, 2011
1924 Broadway premiere of George Dibdin-Pitt's Sweeney Todd, one of numerous adaptations of the penny-dreadful tale of murder and cannibalism that would later be adapted as a musical of …
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AMFriday, July 15, 2011
1905 Birthday of lyricist and librettist Dorothy Fields (1905-1974), daughter of vaudeville star Lew Fields of Weber & Fields. Among her numerous credits over six decades from the 1920s …
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AMThursday, July 14, 2011
1918 Birthday of playwright Arthur Laurents, who will write numerous plays including The Time of the Cuckoo and Invitation to a March, but who is best known as librettist for musical classic…
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AMWednesday, July 13, 2011
1940 Actor Patrick Stewart is born today. Stewart, a Shakespearean-trained actor, will appear on Broadway in his solo production of A Christmas Carol, in the Public Theater production of …
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AMSunday, July 10, 2011
1931 "It's Today" -- that Jerry Herman is born. Herman will become one of Broadway's great musical theatre composers. Among his esteemed credits are the hits Hello, Dolly!,…
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AMFriday, July 1, 2011
1930 Comedian Jack Benny makes his Broadway debut in Earl Carroll's Vanities of 1930. The revue also featured Patsy Kelly, Jimmy Savo and the Collette Sisters.
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AMMonday, June 27, 2011
Sunday, June 26, 2011
1894 (probably) Actress Jeanne Eagels, best known for playing Miss Thompson in Rain, is born today.
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AMSaturday, June 25, 2011
1887 Birthday of legendary director George Abbott (1887-1995) whose long life (107 years) and colossal catalog (more than 110 Broadway shows, sometimes also as producer, writer or even actor…
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AMSaturday, June 18, 2011
1956 The Stratford Shakespeare Festival in Ontario kicks off its season with productions of Henry V, The Merry Wives of Windsor, and Benjamin Britten's The Rape of Lucretia. Also include…
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AMSunday, June 12, 2011
The 2011 Tony Awards are being presented live from the Beacon Theatre June 12. Playbill.com is on site, and will be posting photos as the night progresses.
SOURCE: Playbill at 08:49PMFriday, June 3, 2011
1866 Birthday of playwright and producer George Broadhurst (1866-1952), responsible for dozens of plays and musicals, including the first stage adaptation of Tarzan of the Apes. Also, namesa…
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AMFriday, May 27, 2011
1953 John Mills is The Uninvited Guest at London's St. James's Theatre. Written by his wife, Mary Hayley Bell, and co-starring Cathleen Nesbitt and Joan Greenwood, this story of a ma…
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AMMonday, May 16, 2011
Sunday, May 15, 2011
1922 Father and son playwriting team J.C. and Elliot Nugent come up with Kempy. They also star in this comedy of mixed-up lovers, staged by Augustin Duncan. Performances will run at Broadway…
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AMWednesday, May 11, 2011
1903 In The Runaways with a book by Addison Brukhardt and a score by Raymond Hubbell, the hero is transported to a tropical island and will be made a king. The catch? He must marry the queen…
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AMMonday, May 9, 2011
1860 Birthday of James M. Barrie (1860-1937), British author and playwright whose creations will include What Every Woman Knows, The Little Minister, The Admirable Crichton and the work that…
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AMSunday, May 8, 2011
1892 Birthday of opera singer Ezio Pinza (1892-1957) who made two memorable Broadway appearances, in Fanny and South Pacific, the latter creating the role of Emile deBecque and singing "…
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AMSaturday, May 7, 2011
1915 Among the dead after the sinking of the Lusitania are producer-manager Charles Frohman and playwright Charles Klein. Frohman's first success was Shenandoah. In 1893 he opened the Em…
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AMFriday, May 6, 2011
1912 Richard Le Gallienne's Orestes stars Edyth Olive and Rathmel Wilson. It plays at London's Boudoir Theatre.
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AMWednesday, May 4, 2011
1859 Birthday of A.L. "Abe" Erlanger (1859-1930), who, as half of the team of Klaw and Erlanger, produced dozens of Broadway shows during the first three decades of the 20th centur…
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AMMonday, May 2, 2011
1887 Birthday of Vernon Castle who, with wife and dancing partner Irene Castle, would redefine not just what dancing represented on Broadway, but the kind of music used for that dancing. He …
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AMSunday, May 1, 2011
1922 Comedy team Potash and Perlmutter are Partners Again. The show plays beyond the season at the Selwyn Theatre.
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AMSaturday, April 30, 2011
1924 Birthday of Sheldon Harnick, who will go on to write lyrics to musicals including Fiorello!, She Loves Me, The Apple Tree and Fiddler on the Roof.
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AMThursday, April 28, 2011
1900 Cho-Cho San and her passionate and tragic love illuminate David Belasco's adaptation of John Luther Long's story, Madame Butterfly. It is oddly paired on a double bill at The Duke of Y…
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AM 
