Playbill Vault’s Today in Theater History: September 1
1898 Birthday of one of Broadway’s most endearing performers of the 1920s, Marilyn Miller, whose…
Monthly Archives: March, 2016
Playbill Vault’s Today in Theater History: August 31
1897 John Drew and Billie Burke (in her Broadway debut) star in the new play,…
Playbill Vault’s Today in Theater History: December 7
1879 The composer Rudolf Friml was born in Prague. He emigrated to the United States…
Playbill Vault’s Today in Theater History: June 15
1894 Birthday of Robert Russell Bennett, orchestrator of Broadway classics, including the original Sunny, Show…
Playbill Vault’s Today in Theater History: January 14
1903 Opening night of The little PrincessFrances Hodgson Burnett’s play about a child, in the…
Playbill Vault’s Today in Theater History: December 18
1907 Playwright Christopher Fry, author of Ring Around the Moon and The lady is not…
Playbill Vault’s Today in Theater History: May 11
1903 In runaways, with a book by Addison Burkhardt and a score by Raymond Hubbell,…
Playbill Vault’s Today in Theater History: January 28
Happy birthday, Alan Alda. 1908 J. Lucifer Mephisto tempts a sculptor to be unfaithful to…
Playbill Vault’s Today in Theater History: January 5
1894 Henrik Ibsen’s American premiere Ghosts, with Ida Jeffries Goodfriend, at the Berkeley Lyceum Theater.…
Playbill Vault’s Today in Theater History: November 16
1889 Playwright and director George S. Kaufman was born in Pittsburgh. Former journalist, Kaufman makes…
Playbill Vault’s Today in Theater History: January 6
1768 Birthday of John Durang, identified by scholars as one of the first American-born professional…
Playbill Vault’s Today in Theater History: February 11
1901 A man marries his bride Quiet because his parents want him to finish Yale.…
Playbill Vault’s Today in Theater History: May 29
1951 Interpreter Fanny Brice dies in Hollywood at the age of 60. Her showbiz career…
Playbill Vault’s Today in Theater History: December 26
1904 Maude Adams returns to Broadway with a revival of JM Barrie The little minister.…
Playbill Vault’s Today in Theater History: December 2
1912 firefly sparkles the Lyric Theater with music by Rudolf Friml and lyrics and a…
Playbill Vault’s Today in Theater History: November 28
1923 Lionel Barrymore plays in David Belasco Laugh, clown, laugh!, the Pagliacci-like story of a…
Playbill Vault’s Today in Theater History: October 29
1882 Birth of the French playwright Jean Giraudoux, author of La Folle de Chaillot, Ondine,…
Playbill Vault’s Today in Theater History: May 14
1931 Playwright and producer David Belasco dies in New York. He began his theatrical life…
Playbill Vault’s Today in Theater History: May 18
1923 Sweet Nell of old Drury opens at the 48th Street Theater in New York.…
Playbill Vault’s Today in Theater History: December 12
1902 There are two beginnings in Each man: Edith Wynne Matthison makes her American debut,…
Playbill Vault’s Today in Theater History: January 29
1860 Birthday of Anton Chekhov, one of the fathers of modern theatre, whose relatively small…
Playbill Vault’s Today in Theater History: November 24
1849 Birthday of writer Frances Hodgson Burnett, author of several Broadway plays in the early…
Playbill Vault’s Today in Theater History: November 6
1854 Birthday of John Philip Sousa, composer of countless marches, who also found time to…
Playbill Vault’s Today in Theater History: January 4
1905 Shaky-voiced actor Sterling Holloway was born in Cedartown, Georgia. It becomes a Broadway staple…
Playbill Vault’s Today in Theater History: May 28
1940 Victor Moore, William Gaxton and Vera Zorina star in Purchase in Louisiana. The musical…
Playbill Vault’s Today in Theater History: February 20
1893 Birthday of the playwright and producer Russel Crouse, whose prodigious output of scripts -…
Playbill Vault’s Today in Theater History: January 7
1920 Vincenzo Scognamiglio was born in Naples, Italy. Sound unfamiliar to you? To try Vincent…
Playbill Vault’s Today in Theater History: January 23
Happy birthday, Chita Rivera! 1922 It’s alcohol, jazz and The National anthem. J. Hartley Manners’…
Playbill Vault’s Today in Theater History: December 30
1907 In The Comet, Alla Nazimova plays a woman who falls in love with her…
Playbill Vault’s Today in Theater History: January 3
1909 Birthday of Victor Borge, pianist and actor whose 1953 musical comedy runs 888 performances,…
Playbill Vault’s Today in Theater History: May 30
1868 Producer, director and manager Birth of Charles Dillingham. Dillingham’s dozens of productions include Like…
Playbill Vault’s Today in Theater History: May 21
1929 Highlights of A night in Venice include Ted Healy’s wrestling bears and Busby Berkeley’s…
Playbill Vault’s Today in Theater History: March 10
1925 Ernest Truex is The fell guy for a group of dealers. The James Gleason-George…
Playbill Vault’s Today in Theater History: March 9
In 2008, In the heights opens on Broadway. 1856 Comedian Eddie Foy was born. He…
Playbill Vault’s Today in Theater History: July 6
1939 A young Hollywood hopeful is forced to see her own career sparkle as her…
Playbill Vault’s Today in Theater History: April 29
1899 Happy birthday Edward Kennedy Ellington, who, taking the surname “Duke”, becomes one of the…
Playbill Vault’s Today in Theater History: June 2
1954 Rodgers and Hammerstein Carousel is relaunched for a 10-week run at the New York…
Playbill Vault’s Today in Theater History: May 20
1919 Guy Bolton and PG Wodehouse call it Time to fuck at the Winter Garden…
Playbill Vault’s Today in Theater History: February 14
1882 Birthday of John Barrymore, actor in the grand style and descendant of the Barrymore…
Playbill Vault’s Today in Theater History: April 28
1900 Cho-Cho San and her passionate and tragic love illuminate David Belasco’s adaptation of John…
Playbill Vault’s Today in Theater History: November 10
1900 Opening night of the legendary musical Floradora at the Casino Theater for a run…
Playbill Vault’s Today in Theater History: June 21
1903 Cartoonist Al Hirschfeld was born in St. Louis, Missouri. His distinctive looping line drawings…
Playbill Vault’s Today in Theater History: June 17
1943 George Marion, Jr. and Thomas “Fats” Waller’s Goes to bed early opens on Broadway…
Playbill Vault’s Today in Theater History: June 1
1914 The Ziegfeld follies of 1914 stars Ed Wynn. Leon Errol dances and co-directs with…
Playbill Vault’s Today in Theater History: May 12
1905 Theater producer Sam S. Shubert dies in a train accident. His brothers Lee and…
Playbill Vault’s Today in Theater History: November 21
1694 Birthday of French author François Marie Arouet, better known as Voltaire, whose satirical novel…
Playbill Vault’s Today in Theater History: June 25
1887 Anniversary of legendary director George Abbott, whose long life (107 years) and colossal catalog…
Playbill Vault’s Today in Theater History: September 14
1910 Birthday of Lehman Engel, the award-winning Broadway conductor who founded the BMI Musical Theater…
Playbill Vault’s Today in Theater History: May 2
1887 Birthday of Vernon Castle who, along with his wife and dance partner Irene Castle,…
Playbill Vault’s Today in Theater History: July 28
1920 Two of Broadway’s greatest songwriting talents make their Main Stem debut: lyricist Lorenz Hart,…
Playbill Vault’s Today in Theater History: July 12
1895 Birthday of Oscar Hammerstein II, scion of a notable theatrical family who became its…
Playbill Vault’s Today in Theater History: May 13
1907 Writer-playwright Daphné du Maurier was born to actors Gérald and Muriel du Maurier. Daphne…
Playbill Vault’s Today in Theater History: January 27
In 1991 Stephen Sondheim killers opens Off-Broadway. 1885 master tunesmith birthday Jerome Kern, who wrote…