Saturday, 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 12:00AMFriday, July 20, 2012
1961 Stop The World - I Want To Get Off opens tonight at the Queen's Theatre on London's West End. The musical, which follows the life of one man from birth to death, will run 485 p…
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AMWednesday, July 18, 2012
1928 Following the birth of "talkie" films, Variety prints an article focusing on the amount of legit theatre talent that is being sought for this new medium. Among those stage act…
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
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 12:00AMSaturday, 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 12:00AMThursday, July 12, 2012
1895 Birthday of Oscar Hammerstein II, scion of a notable theatrical family who went on to become its most famous and honored member as a lyricist and librettist. Hammerstein enjoyed a major…
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AMWednesday, July 11, 2012
1915 A King is born today... in the form of Yul Brynner. Brynner will, of course, go on to star as one half of the title of the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical, The King And I, opposite Gert…
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 12:00AMThursday, July 5, 2012
1935 President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs the American National Theatre and Academy bill today, calling for a self-supporting national theatre. ANTA will get off to a slow start but will ev…
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AMWednesday, July 4, 2012
1898 Birthday of actress Gertrude Lawrence (1898-1952), longtime acting partner of Noel Coward (Private Lives, Tonight at 8:30) and star of musicals by the Gershwin brothers (Oh, Kay!, Lady …
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 12:00AMMonday, July 2, 2012
1900 Birthday of director/producer/writer Tyrone Guthrie (1900-1971) who will stage Broadway productions of The Tenth Man, Tamburlaine the Great and the Leonard Bernstein musical Candide.
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 12:00AMSaturday, June 30, 2012
1924 Opening night of George White's Scandals of 1924, which features a score by George Gershwin, including "Somebody Loves Me." It will run 192 performances at the Apollo Thea…
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AMFriday, June 29, 2012
1954 A star is born as Carol Haney's understudy in The Pajama Game goes on in place of the ailing actress and is discovered by theatre critic George Freedly. Writes Freedly in his review…
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AMThursday, June 28, 2012
1902 Birthday of Richard Rodgers (1902-1979), one of the most prolific and successful Broadway composers. His greatest successes came in partnership with lyricist Oscar Hammerstein II (Oklah…
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AMWednesday, June 27, 2012
1888 Birthday of Antoinette Perry (1888-1946), an actress and groundbreaking woman stage director who will help found the American Theatre Wing. In gratitude, the Wing will name its annual t…
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 12:00AMSunday, June 24, 2012
1942 Gypsy Rose Lee and Bobby Clark are featured in Michael Todd's musical revue, Star and Garter, which opens a 609-performance run at the Music Box Theatre.
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AMSaturday, June 23, 2012
1927 Birthday of Robert Louis Fosse, better known as Bob Fosse (1927-1987), master director-choreographer known for his sexy hip-swiveling dances in shows including The Pajama Game, Sweet Ch…
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AMThursday, June 21, 2012
1903 Caricaturist Al Hirschfeld (1903-2003) is born today. His distinctive looping line drawings will capture the essence of Broadway shows from the 1920s through the early 2000s. The Martin…
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AMWednesday, June 20, 2012
1905 Birthday of playwright Lillian Hellman (1905-1984), who will go on to write The Children's Hour, The Little Foxes, Another Part of the Forest, Watch on the Rhine and the book to Can…
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AMTuesday, June 19, 2012
1965 Actor Sydney Chaplin leaves the Broadway production of Funny Girl after settling with the producers. Despite rumors that Chaplin has left the show because of some friction between himse…
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AMMonday, June 18, 2012
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 17, 2012
1955 American producer and playwright John Golden dies at age 81. First an actor and then a writer, Golden eventually found success as the producer of such plays as The First Year and Sevent…
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AM 
