1905 Theatrical producer Sam S. Shubert dies today in a train accident. His brothers Lee and J.J. will honor him by naming many of the theaters they are to build after him, including their f…
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AMAll data provided by The Broadway League View Broadway Grosses in a sortable table or view by show at the Playbill Vault
SOURCE: Playbill at 03:19PM1903 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 12:00AM1838 John Wilkes Booth (1838-1865), perhaps the most infamous actor in American history, is born today. The son of actor Junius Brutus Booth, and brother of actors Junius Brutus Booth Jr…
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AM1860 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 …
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AM1892 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 12:00AM1915 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 th…
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AM1912 Richard Le Gallienne's Orestes stars Edyth Olive and Rathmel Wilson. It plays at London's Boudoir Theatre.
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AM1955 Baseball, ballet and Gwen Verdon provide the slugging power in Damn Yankees. Adapted from Douglass Wallop's book, "The Year the Yankees Lost the Pennant," by Wallop and Ge…
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AMAll data provided by The Broadway League View Broadway Grosses in a sortable table or view by show at the Playbill Vault
SOURCE: Playbill at 03:14PM1859 Birthday of A.L. 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 century, including…
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AM1919 Birthday of Betty Comden, Broadway lyricist and librettist, mainly in collaboration with Adolph Green. Her works include On the Town, Wonderful Town, Peter Pan, On the Twentieth Century…
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AM1887 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 12:00AM1922 Comedy team Potash and Perlmutter are Partners Again. The show plays 31 weeks at the Selwyn Theatre.
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AM1924 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 12:00AM1900 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…
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AMAll data provided by The Broadway League View Broadway Grosses in a sortable table or view by show at the Playbill Vault
SOURCE: Playbill at 03:13PM1903 The Cohan family is Running for Office. Son George M. Cohan wrote the book and the music at the 14th Street Theatre. It will run for six weeks.
SOURCE: Playbill at 01:00AM1926 Sex. It's a comedy. Mae West plays a Canadian woman with no time for those mountees; it's the British navy for her. It runs through one season, but the following it is raided as…
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AM1927 When a woman loves sailors so much she follows them all around the world, it's time to Hit the Deck. Vincent Youmans provides the score for Herbert Fields' book adapted from the…
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AM1905 Sir Henry Irving's production of The Merchant of Venice was to have opened the annual Shakespeare Festival at Stratford-upon-Avon. But Irving was taken ill and Frank Benson …
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AMThe gangsters in Cole Porter's Kiss Me, Kate implore the audience to "Brush up your Shakespeare." In honor of William Shakespeare's 451st birthday, Playbill helps readers d…
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:29PM1564 Okay, no one's actually certain that April 23, 1564 was William Shakespeare's birthday, but that's the accepted date. Over the next 52 years, the Bard would pen such works a…
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AMTo make tickets more affordable to students and other theatregoers on a budget, many Off-Broadway shows have implemented rush, lottery and inexpensive ticket policies.
SOURCE: Playbill at 01:30PM1895 Broadway debut of Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest, starring Henry Miller as Jack Worthing.
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AM1925 Tallulah Bankhead and Edna Best are Fallen Angels at London's Globe Theatre. Noël Coward's comedy describes two wives who get drunk while trying to get even with their husbands…
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AMAll data provided by The Broadway League View Broadway Grosses in a sortable table or view by show at the Playbill Vault Note: Skylight was dark April 14-19.
SOURCE: Playbill at 03:30PM1908 The four Cohans (George, Helen, Jerry and Josephine) are the stars of The Yankee Prince. George M. Cohan wrote, directed and co-produced this musical at Broadway's Knickerbocker…
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AM1946 Actor Tim Curry is born in Cheshire, England. He will create memorable Broadway roles including Frank N. Furter in The Rocky Horror Show, Mozart in Amadeus, Dada artist Tristan Tzara in…
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AM1936 In Irwin Shaw's Bury the Dead the task becomes impossible as the six dead soldiers refuse the grave. This one-act protest against the war will run three months at the Ethel Barr…
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AM1917 John Barrymore stars in Gerald DuMaurier's Peter Ibbetson at Broadway's Republic Theatre. Lionel Barrymore, Constance Collier, Madge Evans, and Laura Hope Crews are also in the …
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AM
