Wednesday, November 12, 2014
1874 Birthday of pioneering African-American performer-composer Bert Williams (1874-1922), who wrote music for Broadway's In Dahomey (1903) and Abyssinia (1906), but achieved…
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AMTuesday, November 11, 2014
1872 Birthday of Maude Adams (1872-1953), Broadway's first Peter Pan, who originated the role in 1904, and returned at least three times through 1915.
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AMMonday, November 10, 2014
1900 Opening night of legendary musical Floradora at the Casino Theatre for a 553-performance run — the first major hit of the 20th century. The production is remembered principally fo…
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AMForty-five years ago today, on Nov. 10, 1969, sunny days first began sweeping the clouds away as "Sesame Street" premiered on television. The show has educated generations of c…
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AMSunday, November 9, 2014
1818 Playwright and novelist Ivan Turgenev is born in Russia. His most notable play is A Month in the Country, but he will make a bit of history in 2002 when his 150-year-old play Fo…
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AMSaturday, November 8, 2014
1913 Birthday of June Hovik, better known as June Havoc, even better known as namesake of Baby June, the character based on her in the musical Gypsy. The show pretty accurately sums up her c…
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AMThursday, November 6, 2014
1904 The timeless anthem "Give My Regards to Broadway" is first sung tonight on the Broadway stage tonight at the opening of George M. Cohan's Little Johnny Jones at the Libert…
SOURCE: Playbill at 11:00PMWednesday, November 5, 2014
1854 Birthday of John Philip Sousa (1854-1932), composer of countless marches, who also found time to write Broadway musicals including Chris and the Wonderful Lamp (1900), The Free Lanc…
SOURCE: Playbill at 11:00PM1895 Birthday of Charles MacArthur (1895-1956), newsman-turned-playwright, whose wisecracking oeuvre includes The Front Page, Twentieth Century (the play on which the musical On …
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AMMonday, November 3, 2014
1787 Birthday of British actor Edmund Kean (1787-1833), considered one of the finest actors of the early 18th century. Among his greatest roles was Shakespeare's Richard III. He will…
SOURCE: Playbill at 11:00PMSunday, November 2, 2014
1916 A new play by a new playwright opens at the Provincetown Playhouse in New York's Greenwich Village, far from Broadway and Times Square, but the play and the author will soon revolut…
SOURCE: Playbill at 11:00PM1903 Daniel Frohman opens the New Lyceum Theatre on Manhattan's West 45th Street with E. H. Sothern in The Proud Prince. Designed by Herts & Tallant, the theatre was later rechri…
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AMSaturday, November 1, 2014
1920 Opening night for Eugene O'Neill's The Emperor Jones, starring Charles S. Gilpin as a onetime railway porter who goes to Africa and rises to become the corrupt head of a new e…
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:10AMFriday, October 31, 2014
1896 Birthday of Ethel Waters (1896-1977), Broadway star of musicals and plays including The Member of the Wedding, As Thousands Cheer, Cabin in the Sky and Lew Leslie's Blackbirds.
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AMThursday, October 30, 2014
1896 Birthday of Ruth Gordon, later to star on Broadway in dozens of plays, including Ethan Frome, The Country Wife and her own Years Ago; also in Thornton Wilder's The Matchmaker (sour…
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AMWednesday, October 29, 2014
1882 Birth of French playwright Jean Giraudoux, author of The Madwoman of Chaillot, Ondine, Intermezzo, Tiger at the Gates and Amphitryon 38. He lives to 1944.
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AMTuesday, October 28, 2014
1928 Six-time Tony-winning costume designer Florence Klotz is born today. Her designs will be worn by the original casts of Follies, A Little Night Music, Pacific Overtures, On the T…
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AMMonday, October 27, 2014
All data provided by The Broadway League
View Broadway Grosses in a sortable table or view by show at the Playbill Vault
SOURCE: Playbill at 03:23PM1904 The New York City subway system makes its maiden run today. The first line runs right through Times Square, making it much easier for audiences from the far reaches of Manhattan to get …
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AMSaturday, October 25, 2014
1927 Birthday of Barbara Cook, sylphlike ingenue of the 1950s who created lead roles in Flahooley, Candide, The Grass Harp and The Music Man (as the original Marian the Librarian), and later…
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AMFriday, October 24, 2014
1904 Birthday of Moss Hart, Broadway playwright who will write or cowrite The Man Who Came to Dinner, Once in a Lifetime, As Thousands Cheer, You Can't Take it With You and Lady in the …
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:11AMThursday, October 23, 2014
1844 Actress Sarah Bernhardt born today. "The Divine Sarah" will create many memorable roles in French and English, notably in Alexandre Dumas, fils' classic La Dame aux Cameli…
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AMWednesday, October 22, 2014
1903 Birthday of Jerome Lester Horwitz (1903-1952), better known by his stage name Curley Howard, who will team up with his brother Harry Moses Horwitz (a.k.a. Moe) and Larry Fine to for…
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AMTuesday, October 21, 2014
1933 Trying to follow-up the success of their Pulitzer-winning musical Of Thee I Sing, George Gershwin, Ira Gershwin, George S. Kaufman and Morrie Ryskind bring back President John W…
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AMMonday, October 20, 2014
1882 Birthday of Bela Lugosi, Hungarian-born actor who plays a variety of character roles before landing the part that will make him an icon, the title role in Dracula, first on Broa…
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AMSunday, October 19, 2014
1907 Top 'o the World, a musical extravaganza, opens on Broadway to a then-impressive 156-performance run.
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AMSaturday, October 18, 2014
1858 Our American Cousin, Tom Taylor's comedy about the difference in manners between the English and the Americans, debuts in New York today, and proves an enduring hit, touring and bei…
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AMFriday, October 17, 2014
1888 Broadway premiere of the W. S. Gilbert & Arthur Sullivan operetta The Yeomen of the Guard.
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AMThursday, October 16, 2014
1854 Happy Birthday Oscar Wilde, born today in Dublin. He will go on to write An Ideal Husband, The Importance of Being Earnest and other glittering comedies, before being laid low in a slan…
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AMWednesday, October 15, 2014
1881 Birth of Pelham Grenville Wodehouse — P.G. Wodehouse to theatre lovers — in England. He will go on to write the "Jeeves" stories as well as many Broadway musicals includin…
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AMTuesday, October 14, 2014
1893 Lillian Gish, film acting pioneer whose Broadway career lasted from 1913 to 1976, is born today. Her stage shows will include Camille, The Trip to Bountiful and several versions of Uncl…
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AM 
