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