Friday, August 24, 2012
1985 Morrie Ryskind dies in his home in Washington, DC. The playwright who collaborated with George S. Kaufman, Ira Gershwin, and George Gershwin on three musicals, Strike Up the Band, Let &…
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AMWednesday, August 22, 2012
1922 Theoni V. Aldredge, one of Broadway's foremost costume designers of the late 20th century, is born today in Greece. Included among her dozens of Broadway projects will be A Chorus L…
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AMThursday, August 16, 2012
1913 Montague Glass' comedy Potash and Perlmutter begins a hit run at the Cohan Theatre, starring George Sidney and Alexander Carr as the hapless pair.
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AMMonday, August 13, 2012
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 03:33PM1895 Bert Lahr (nee Irving Lahrheim), the future stage and screen clown, is born today in New York. Following an early career in Vaudeville, Lahr will enjoy a widely successful career on Bro…
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AMSaturday, August 11, 2012
1867 Actor-producer Joseph Weber, of Weber and Fields, is born today.
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AMFriday, August 10, 2012
1911 Birthday of playwright Jerome Chodorov, who wrote the play, My Sister Eileen, which he later adapted as the book for the musical Wonderful Town, which won him a Tony Award. Other plays …
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AMSunday, August 5, 2012
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 12:00AMThursday, August 2, 2012
1900 Birthday of actress and singer Helen Morgan, who rose to fame as a nightclub performer. She had a show at Billy Rose's Backstage Club, where the crowded conditions made her perch on…
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AMWednesday, August 1, 2012
1921 Opening night of the popular farce Getting Gertie's Garter about a man who gives a young woman a jeweled garter, then schemes to get it back before his fiance finds out.
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AMTuesday, July 31, 2012
1969 Talk about a writer's revenge! Josef Bush, who has adapted De Sade Illustrated at Off-Broadway's Bouwerie Theatre, wreaks havoc on the set, spreading white paint all over it. Hi…
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AMSunday, July 29, 2012
1981 An ad in Variety today accuses theatre critic John Simon of being "racist, anti-Semitic, misogynist, vicious, and derisive." Included in the ad/protest are excerpts from Simon…
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AMFriday, July 27, 2012
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 12:00AMThursday, July 26, 2012
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 12:00AMWednesday, July 25, 2012
1853 Birthday of Broadway impresario David Belasco, namesake of the Belasco Theatre, who wrote and/or produced dozens of plays including The Return of Peter Grimm and Laugh, Clown, Laugh!, a…
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AMSunday, July 22, 2012
1912 The Shubert Brothers present the first of their annual Passing Show installments tonight. The Passing Show of 1912 features Charlotte Greenwood, Trixie Friganza, and Eugene and Willie H…
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AMSaturday, July 21, 2012
1951 Birthday of actress Lillias White, whose Broadway appearances include Effie White in Dreamgirls, Miss Jones in How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying and Funmilayo Anikulapo-K…
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AMTuesday, July 17, 2012
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 12:01AMMonday, July 16, 2012
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 03:20PM1924 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 12:00AMSunday, July 15, 2012
1856 Birthday of prolific producer Charles Frohman (1856-1915) who, often in collaboration with his brothers Daniel and Gustave, produced dozens of Broadway shows including Sherlock Holmes, …
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AMSaturday, July 14, 2012
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 12:00AMFriday, July 13, 2012
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 12:00AMTuesday, July 10, 2012
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 12:00AMMonday, July 9, 2012
1930 In today's Variety, a review of a new vaudeville show at the Eighty Sixth Street Theatre singles out a newcomer from the world of cabaret. Reads the review: "She is a good look…
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AMSaturday, July 7, 2012
1976 After two years of playing downtown at the Village Gate Theatre, Earl Wilson, Jr.'s play Let My People Come makes the move uptown to Broadway's Morosco Theatre. The show, which …
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AMFriday, July 6, 2012
1939 A young Hollywood hopeful is forced to watch her own career fizzle as her boyfriend's blossoms in Lew Brown's new musical, Yokel Boy. Lois January and Buddy Ebsen star in the ne…
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AMTuesday, July 3, 2012
1878 The original Yankee Doodle Dandy, George M. Cohan (1878-1942) is born on the 3rd of July, (not the 4th as ws family legend) says. A member of the vaudeville team The Four Cohans with hi…
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AMSunday, July 1, 2012
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 12:00AMTuesday, June 26, 2012
1894 (probably) Actress Jeanne Eagels, best known for playing Miss Thompson in Rain, is born today.
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AMMonday, June 25, 2012
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 12:00AM 
