All stories by Vi on BroadwayStars

Saturday, January 18, 2014

PLAYBILL VAULT'S Today In Theatre History: JANUARY 18 by David Gewirtzman and Robet Viagas, Christopher Reichheld and Anne Bradley

1882 Birthday of A. A. Milne (1882-1956), best-known as creator of the Winnie-the-Pooh books, but also a prolific Broadway playwright, author of Mr. Pim Passes By, The Truth About Blayds, Be…

SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AM
Friday, January 17, 2014

PLAYBILL VAULT'S Today In Theatre History: JANUARY 17 by David Gewirtzman and Anne Bradley and Robert Viagas

1911 Love is never easy, especially when a woman is the object of affection for The Scarecrow. Percy MacKaye used "Feathertop," Nathaniel Hawthorne's tale as a starting point f…

SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AM
Tuesday, January 14, 2014

PLAYBILL VAULT'S Today In Theatre History: JANUARY 14 by David Gewirtzman and Robert Viagas, Christopher Reichheld and Anne Bradley

1903 Opening night of The Little Princess, Frances Hodgson Burnett play about a child, much in the same vein as her The Secret Garden. Little Princess will run just 34 performances.

SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AM
Monday, January 13, 2014

PLAYBILL VAULT'S Today In Theatre History: JANUARY 13 by David Gewirtzman and Anne Bradley, Christopher Reichheld, Robert Viagas

1925 Birthday of one of Broadway's all-time greatest leading ladies, Gwen Verdon (1925-2000). She was nominated for the Tony Award as Best Actress or Featured Actress in a Musical six ti…

SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AM
Sunday, January 12, 2014

PLAYBILL VAULT'S Today In Theatre History: JANUARY 12 by David Gewirtzman and Robert Viagas, Christopher Reichheld and Anne Bradley

1878 Hungarian playwright Ferenc Molnár (1878-1952) is born today in Budapest. He will write The Good Fairy, The Play's the Thing, The Guardsman, The Swan and Liliom, the latter of which wi…

SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AM
Thursday, January 2, 2014

PLAYBILL VAULT'S Today In Theatre History: JANUARY 2 by David Gewirtzman and Robert Viagas, Christopher Reichheld and Anne Bradley

1910 American actress Agnes Booth dies today at age of 63. She was the wife of Junius Brutus Booth, Jr. and the sister-in-law of Edwin Booth.

SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AM
Thursday, December 19, 2013

Drunk on Shakespeare – Three Day Hangover Company Takes the Bard to Bars by Jonathan Mandell, The Three Day Hangover Founders: David Hudson, Lori Wolter Hudson and Beth Gardiner

Lori Wolter Hudson remembers having a nervous breakdown in middle school in Indiana when her teacher assigned her to recite … Read More →

SOURCE: nytheatremag.com at 04:14PM
Monday, December 16, 2013

The best (and worst) theater of 2013 by David Cote and Adam Feldman

From the best new Broadway shows to groundbreaking downtown experiments, it was a very good year for New York theater.

SOURCE: Time Out at 12:49PM
Friday, December 6, 2013

20 Broadway shows and Off Broadway events this winter by David Cote and Adam Feldman

Days are growing shorter, the nights are getting colder…how to keep our spirits up during the winter months? That’s easy: Go see a show. Between now and the onset of spring, theater is a…

SOURCE: Time Out at 04:39PM
Wednesday, December 4, 2013

PLAYBILL VAULT'S Today In Theatre History: DECEMBER 4 by David Gewirtzman and Robert Viagas, Anne Bradley and Christopher Reichheld

1860 Birthday of Lillian Russell (1860-1922), who became the epitome of Gilded Age female sex appeal and stage presence starting in vaudeville at Tony Pastor's Theatre and graduating to …

SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AM
Saturday, November 30, 2013

PLAYBILL VAULT'S Today In Theatre History: NOVEMBER 30 by David Gewirtzman and Anne Bradley, Steve Luber

1924 Henry Oscar and Esme Biddle are the leads of Byron by Alice Law, at the Century Theatre in Bayswater, England. In a very small role is someone named Laurence Olivier.

SOURCE: Playbill at 12:01AM
Friday, November 29, 2013

PLAYBILL VAULT'S Today In Theatre History: NOVEMBER 29 by David Gewirtzman and Robert Viagas, Steve Luber and Anne Bradley

1895 Birthday of legendary film choreographer Busby Berkeley (1895-1976), whose career will be launched with a 12-show burst of creativity on Broadway between the end of 1926 and the beginni…

SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AM
Monday, November 11, 2013

PLAYBILL VAULT'S Today In Theatre History: NOVEMBER 11 by David Gewirtzman and Robert Viagas, Sam Maher, Steve Luber and Anne Bradley

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 12:00AM
Sunday, November 10, 2013

PLAYBILL VAULT'S Today In Theatre History: NOVEMBER 10 by David Gewirtzman and Robert Viagas, Anne Bradley and Steve Luber

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 for the…

SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AM
Friday, November 8, 2013

PLAYBILL VAULT'S Today in Theatre History: NOVEMBER 8 by David Gewirtzman and Robert Viagas, Sam Maher and Steve Luber

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 12:00AM
Tuesday, November 5, 2013

PLAYBILL VAULT'S Today in Theatre History: NOVEMBER 5 by David Gewirtzman and Robert Viagas, Sam Maher and Steve Luber

1895 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 the Twentiet…

SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AM
Monday, November 4, 2013

PLAYBILL VAULT'S Today in Theatre History: NOVEMBER 4 by David Gewirtzman and Robert Viagas, Sam Maher and Steve Luber

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 be …

SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AM
Sunday, November 3, 2013

PLAYBILL VAULT'S Today in Theatre History: NOVEMBER 3 by David Gewirtzman and Robert Viagas, Sam Maher and Steve Luber

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 12:00AM
Saturday, November 2, 2013

PLAYBILL VAULT'S Today in Theatre History: NOVEMBER 2 by David Gewirtzman and Robert Viagas, Sam Maher and Steve Luber

1903 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 rechristen…

SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AM
Friday, November 1, 2013

PLAYBILL VAULT'S Today in Theatre History: NOVEMBER 1 by David Gewirtzman and Robert Viagas, Sam Maher and Steve Luber

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 empire ther…

SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AM
Thursday, October 31, 2013

PLAYBILL VAULT'S Today in Theatre History: OCTOBER 31 by David Gewirtzman and Robert Viagas, Sam Maher and Steve Luber

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 12:00AM
Wednesday, October 30, 2013

PLAYBILL VAULT'S Today in Theatre History: OCTOBER 30 by David Gewirtzman and Robert Viagas, Sam Maher and Steve Luber

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 12:00AM
Tuesday, October 29, 2013

PHOTO SPECIAL: Playbill Gets "Green-ified" in Honor of Wicked by Matthew Blank and David Gewirtzman

The New York production of the international hit musical Wicked celebrates its 10th anniversary on Broadway Oct. 30. The Playbill.com staff had a little fun and "greenified" a handful of pr…

SOURCE: Playbill at 12:16PM

PLAYBILL VAULT'S Today in Theatre History: OCTOBER 29 by David Gewirtzman and Robert Viagas, Sam Maher and Steve Luber

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 12:00AM
Monday, October 28, 2013

PLAYBILL VAULT'S Today in Theatre History: OCTOBER 28 by David Gewirtzman and Robert Viagas, Sam Maher and Steve Luber

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 Twentieth…

SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AM
Sunday, October 13, 2013

PLAYBILL VAULT'S Today in Theatre History: OCTOBER 13 by David Gewirtzman and Robert Viagas, Sam Maher and Ernio Hernandez

1903 Victor Herbert's Babes in Toyland opens on Broadway, introducing the songs "I Can't Do the Sum," "Go To Sleep," "Toyland" and "The March of th…

SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AM
Saturday, October 12, 2013

PLAYBILL VAULT'S Today in Theatre History: OCTOBER 12 by David Gewirtzman and Robert Viagas, Sam Maher and Ernio Hernandez

1914 Broadway premiere of George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion, with Mrs. Patrick Campbell as Eliza Doolittle. The drama will serve as the basis of the 1956 musical My Fair Lady.

SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AM
Tuesday, October 8, 2013

On Broadway with Pedro by Pedro Salazar and Saviana Stanescu

We talk about the style and scope of our show. Pedro is used to working on big stages in Columbia and France lately. I am a “theatrical mutt” with a back eye to the big theatrica…

SOURCE: Theatre Communications Group at 04:34PM
Friday, September 20, 2013

'Romeo and Juliet' on Broadway: What did the critics think? by Sherry Stern and David Ng

"Romeo and Juliet," Shakesepeare's most enduring tragic love story, has found its way back to Broadway after nearly three decades. Orlando Bloom and Condola Rashad are this year's star-cross…

SOURCE: Los Angeles Times at 02:55PM

PLAYBILL VAULT'S Today in Theatre History: SEPTEMBER 20 by David Gewirtzman and Ernio Hernandez and Robert Viagas

1886 Birthday of writer/director John Murray Anderson (1886-1954), whose work for revues Ziegfeld Follies, Greenwich Village Follies and John Murray Anderson's Almanac helped launch and furt…

SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AM
Thursday, September 5, 2013

PLAYBILL VAULT'S Today In Theatre History: SEPTEMBER 5 by David Gewirtzman and Ernio Hernandez, Robert Viagas

1881 Birthday of B. Iden Payne (1881-1976) a producer and playwright, who, as a professor at the University of Texas, inspired three generations of Broadway artists, including Tommy Tune and…

SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AM

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