Thursday, May 14, 2015
From Broadway’s best new musicals to global festivals, the city’s stages keep hot during the summer months
SOURCE: Time Out at 11:11PM1931 Playwright, producer David Belasco dies today in New York City. He began his theatrical life as a child actor in California and started writing plays in his twenties. He adapted the Joh…
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AMWednesday, May 13, 2015
1907 Writer-playwright Daphne du Maurier is born to actor Gerald and actress Muriel du Maurier. Daphne will later adapt her novel Rebecca into a play.
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AMTuesday, May 12, 2015
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 12:00AMMonday, May 11, 2015
What, if anything, do the Tony Awards tell us about the state of American theatre? Is Broadway still where the important plays and musicals are staged? On this week’s Out Loud podcast, we…
SOURCE: The New Yorker Subscription at 06:18PM1903 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 12:00AMSunday, May 10, 2015
1838 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 12:00AMSaturday, May 9, 2015
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 …
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AMFriday, May 8, 2015
With interactive shows continuing to draw in crowds, we rank the most popular Off Broadway events from best to worst
SOURCE: Time Out at 09:20PMJames Lecesne's solo play The Absolute Brightness of Leonard Pelkey, which recently played a critically acclaimed limited engagement at Dixon Place, will have a commercial run O…
SOURCE: Playbill at 11:36AM1892 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 12:00AMThursday, May 7, 2015
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 th…
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AMWednesday, May 6, 2015
1912 Richard Le Gallienne's Orestes stars Edyth Olive and Rathmel Wilson. It plays at London's Boudoir Theatre.
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AMTuesday, May 5, 2015
1955 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 12:00AMMonday, May 4, 2015
1859 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 12:00AMSunday, May 3, 2015
1919 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 12:00AMSaturday, May 2, 2015
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 12:00AMFriday, May 1, 2015
The Las Vegas stage production of The Duck Commander Musical, based on the popular, yet controversial family from the A&E series "Duck Dynasty," will end its run a…
SOURCE: Playbill at 04:21PM1922 Comedy team Potash and Perlmutter are Partners Again. The show plays 31 weeks at the Selwyn Theatre.
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AMThursday, April 30, 2015
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 12:00AMWednesday, April 29, 2015
1899 Happy birthday Edward Kennedy Ellington, who, taking the surname "Duke," became one of the 20th century's most important musician-composers. His Broadway shows, Beggar…
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AMTuesday, April 28, 2015
Tony Award winner Kristin Chenoweth, who missed performances of her Broadway musical On the Twentieth Century April 24-26 due to illness, was well enough to return to the show …
SOURCE: Playbill at 07:25PMThis morning, Broadway-bound Bruce Willis and Mary-Louise Parker announced the nominees for the 2015 Tony Awards. While for us there weren’t a lot of surprises (our pre-nominations were pr…
SOURCE: Time Out at 02:35PM1900 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 12:00AMMonday, April 27, 2015
1903 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 01:00AMSunday, April 26, 2015
1926 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 12:00AMSaturday, April 25, 2015
1927 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 12:00AMFriday, April 24, 2015
1905 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 12:00AMThursday, April 23, 2015
1564 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 12:00AMWednesday, April 22, 2015
To 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 01:30PMThere's more to Broadway than what you see in production photos and opening night coverage! Former Broadway press representative David LeShay, currently the director of marketing and pub…
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:42PM 
