
Playbill Vault’s Today in Theater History: March 19
1872 Birthday of singer and actress Anna Held, future wife of Florenz Ziegfeld, and classic…
1872 Birthday of singer and actress Anna Held, future wife of Florenz Ziegfeld, and classic…
1865 Birthday of Mary Augusta Davey, who acts as Minnie Maddern, Minnie Maddern Fiske and…
1900 Birthday of the actor and singer Helen Morgan, who rose to fame as a…
1904 Set designer and costume designer Oliver Messel was born in London.1911 Ethel Barrymore given…
1889 Playwright and director George S. Kaufman was born in Pittsburgh. Former journalist, Kaufman makes…
1900 The scandalous Sappho is staged at Wallack’s Theater in New York. Based on the…
In 2006, winner of the Pulitzer Prize rabbit hole opens on Broadway. 1912 composer’s birthday…
1911 Hugh Herbert Hipple was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. After dropping two Hs, he becomes…
In 2010, Liev Schreiber and Scarlett Johansson play in Arthur Miller A view from the…
In 1979, the musical They play our song opens on Broadway. 1903 Broadway leader’s birthday…
1905 Quivery voice actor Sterling Holloway was born in Cedartown, Georgia. It becomes a staple…
1893 dancer birthday Ann Pennington, who flaunts her legendary dimpled knee in numerous editions of…
1903 Mam’selle Napoleon is Anna Held in the musical at the Knickerbocker Theater. Produced by…
1896 Birthday of Ira Gershwin, one of Broadway’s brightest lyricists, mostly in collaboration with her…
1888 One of Frances Hodgson Burnett’s greatest hits opens: Little Lord Fauntleroy, with Tommy Russell.…
1907 Theater producer Herman Levin was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.1924 Fred and Adele Astaire star…
1924 Henry Oscar and Esme Biddle are the protagonists of Byron by Alice Law, at…
1906 Anna Held is The Parisian model who inherits money mysteriously. Harry B. Smith provides…
1849 Birthday of writer Frances Hodgson Burnett, author of several Broadway plays in the early…
1920 In Rollo’s wild oats, the main character rents a theater and hires actors to…
1694 Birthday of French writer François Marie Arouet, better known as Voltaire, whose satirical novel…
1922 The lucky is the brother who doesn’t get the girl in AA Milne’s play.…
1906 George Arliss and Mrs. Fiske star in The New York idea, the play by…
1889 Playwright and director George S. Kaufman was born in Pittsburgh. Former journalist, Kaufman imposes…
1875 British operetta titans WS Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan make their US debut with Jury…
1874 Birthday of pioneering African-American artist-songwriter Bert Williams, who writes music for Broadway’s In Dahomey…
1900 Opening night of the legendary musical Floradora at the Casino Theater for a series…
1818 Playwright and novelist Ivan Turgenev was born in Russia. His most remarkable piece is…
1854 Birthday party of John Philip Sousa, composer of countless marches, who also found time…
1895 Birthday of Charles MacArthur, journalist turned playwright, whose Savoyard work includes Front page, 20th…
1916 A new play by a new playwright opens at the Provincetown Playhouse in Greenwich…
1903 Daniel Frohman opens the New Lyceum Theater on West 45th Street in Manhattan with…
1920 birthday of Nanette Fabray, Broadway Musical Star High buttoned shoes, Love life (Tony Award),…
1882 Birth of the French playwright Jean Giraudoux, author of The madwoman of Chaillot, Ondine,…
1920 birthday of Nanette Fabray, Broadway musical star High buttoned shoes, Love life (Tony Award),…
1844 Edward Harrigan, half of Harrigan and Hart’s iconic 1880s writing and performance team, was…
1888 Operetta WS Gilbert & Arthur Sullivan Broadway Premiere The Yeomen of the Guard.1915 Arthur…
1730 Birthday of Oliver Goldsmith, British author of She bends over to conquer.1900 One of…
1893 Arthur Wing Pinero woos scandal with his play The second Mrs. Tanqueray, about a…
1857 Edward Franklin Albee is born, who, along with BF Keith, controls one of the…
1919 Hitchy-Koo 1919 turns out to be a minor hit for star Raymond Hitchcock, but…
1859 Eleanora Duse was born in Italy. One of the main actors of his time,…
1890 Julius Henry Marx was born in New York. Under the nickname “Groucho”, he and…
1921 The operetta Flowering time opens on Broadway. With around twenty Franz Schubert themes rearranged…
1898 Composer George Gershwin was born in New York. He writes Porgy and Bess, “Rhapsody…
1910 Birthday of Lehman Engel, the Tony-winning Broadway conductor who founded the BMI Musical Theater…
1894 Birthday of British playwright JB Priestley, playwright An inspector calls, when we are married,…
1897 John Drew and Billie Burke (in her Broadway debut) star in the new play,…
1918 Birthday of composer Leonard Bernstein, who bridged the worlds of classical and Broadway, both…
1922 Theoni V. Aldredge, one of the leading Broadway costume designers of the late 20th…
1885 London’s hit operetta The Mikado, by WS Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan, premiered on Broadway…
1871 Birthday of playwright Jesse Lynch Williams. During the 1917-1918 theatrical season, Williams’ play, Why…
1879 The legendary Barrymore family has one more to add to their list with the…
1895 Bert Lahr (née Irving Lahrheim), future stage and film clown, was born in New…
1924 Singer and vaudeville star Sophie tucker opens at the Palace.1924 Helene hayes opens in…
1921 Composer Richard Adler was born. Alongside Jerry Ross, he wrote two of the most…
1900 Birthday of actress and singer Helen Morgan, who rose to fame as a nightclub…
1853 Birthday of Broadway impresario David Belasco, namesake of Belasco Theater, who wrote and /…
1920 Producer Alexander H. Cohen, known for bringing quality plays to Broadway for six decades,…
1951 Birthday of Lillias White, whose Broadway appearances include Effie White in Dream girls, Miss…
1895 Birthday of Oscar Hammerstein II, descendant of a notable theatrical family who became his…
1913 Birthday of theater critic Walter Kerr, namesake of the Walter Kerr Theater on Broadway.…
1878 The original Yankee Doodle Dandy, George M. Cohan was born July 3, not July…
1924 Opening night of George White scandals from 1924, which includes a score by George…
1887 Birthday of legendary director George Abbott, whose long life (107 years) and colossal catalog…
1903 Cartoonist Al Hirschfeld was born in St. Louis, Missouri. His distinctive looping line art…
1894 Birthday of Robert Russell Bennett, orchestrator of Broadway classics including the original Sunny, Show…
1909 Birthday of Broadway star Jessica Tandy, who has created many landmark roles including Blanche…
1838 John Wilkes Booth, perhaps the most infamous actor in American history, was born. Son…
1917 Birthday of Betty Comden, lyricist and Broadway librettist, mainly in collaboration with Adolph Green.…
1917 birthday of Betty Comden, Broadway lyricist and librettist, mainly in collaboration with Adolph Green.…
1887 Anniversary of Vernon Castle who, along with his wife and dance partner Irene Castle,…
1925 Tallulah Bankhead and Edna Best are Fallen angels at the Globe Theater in London.…
1912 Karl Malden was born in Chicago, Illinois. He appears in numerous Broadway productions, most…
1912 Karl Malden was born in Chicago, Illinois. He appears in numerous Broadway productions, most…
1872 Birthday of singer and actress Anna Held, future wife of Florenz Ziegfeld, and the…
1927 Birthday of composer John Kander, who composes scores for Broadway Cabaret, Chicago, Kiss of…
1927 composer’s birthday John Kander, who composes scores for Broadway Cabaret, Chicago, Kiss of the…
1928 Playwright’s birthday Edward Albee, who writes Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, The goat or…
1925 Ernest Truex is The right guy for a group of drug dealers. The James…
1856 Comedian Eddie Foy was born. He plays in vaudeville and on Broadway, notably in…
1900 Composer Kurt Weill was born in Dessau, Germany. He composed the scores of Bertolt…
1859 Sholem Yakov Rabinowitz was born in Ukraine. Under the pseudonym Sholem Aleichem, he wrote…
1859 Sholem Yakov Rabinowitz was born in Ukraine. Under the pseudonym Sholem Aleichem, he wrote…
Happy birthday, Nathan Lane! 1938 A grandfather holds back death by chasing him into a…
1812 Author’s birthday Charles Dickens, whose A Christmas Carol has been adapted for the stage…
1859 Birthday of King of Broadway Operetta Victor Herbert, composer of Babes in Toyland, The…
1859 Birthday of the King of Broadway Operetta Victor Herbert, composer of Babes in Toyland,…
1860 Birthday of Anton Chekhov, one of the fathers of modern theater, whose relatively small…
1885 Birthday of Master Mechanic Jerome Kern, who writes sheet music for many Broadway shows,…