1860 Birthday of , who becomes the epitome of Gilded Age female sex appeal and stage presence, starting in vaudeville at Tony Pastor's Theatre and graduating to a series of frothy musical comedy vehicles including Whirl-i-gig, Fiddle-dee-dee, Hoity-Toity, Twirly-Whirly, Whoop-Dee-Doo, and Lady Teazle. She also appears in Gilbert and Sullivan operettas and, later in life, in burlesque.
1901 The Girl and the Judge both want what's best for the girl's kleptomaniac mother. wrote and staged the drama which stars .
1906 stars in The Man of the Hour by . The plot鈥擣airbanks as a reformer out to expose corruption at City Hall鈥攁ngers the Tammany Hall politicians and fans the interest of the public. It runs 479 performances.
1910 Composer , one of the many contributors to , is born in Chester, Pennsylvania.
1933 , 's drama based on the 1932 novel about a family of Georgia sharecroppers, opens at the Theatre Masque. It sticks around for 3,182 performances, making it, at the time, the longest running play in Broadway history.
1934 What do you do when kidnappers move into your boarding house? , star of , has 209 performances to find out. The and comedy opens at the Masque Theatre.
1983 The story goes on as Baby opens at Broadway's Ethel Barrymore Theatre. The Broadway debut for the writing team of David Shire and Richard Maltby, Jr., Baby takes a look at the process of becoming a parent from three different perspectives: a young and unmarried couple, a couple struggling with fertility, and an older couple whose pregnancy is a surprise. Featured in the cast are Beth Fowler and Liz Callaway, the latter in her first leading role on Broadway.
1986 's opens at the Broadhurst Theatre, where it runs for 756 performances. The cast includes , , , and . It is the third of Simon's autobiographical plays, which include and .
1997 Linda Lavin, , , , and star in a -directed revival of , notable for its inclusion of personal material about Anne's budding sexuality and her strained relationship with her mother.
2003 The world premiere of the new musical, Like Jazz, opens at Los Angeles' Mark Taper Forum, starring , Patti Austin, and . It is Coleman's final major debut of a new musical before his death in November 2004.
2007 Broadway opening night for ' searing family drama , which wins the Tony Award as Best Play and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. It runs for 648 performances.
2011 A revival of 's The Cherry Orchard, starring as Ranevskaya and as Lopakhin,聽opens Off-Broadway at .
2012 The New York City premiere of Golden Age, 's play about the world of composer Vincenzo Bellini, opens Off-Broadway at , with starring as the nervous 19th-century Sicilian composer whose opera I Puritani is receiving its Paris world premiere in 1835. The cast also includes , , and Will Rogers.
2015 returns to Broadway in 's , opening at the Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre. The play follows a billionaire who is about to retire and marry a younger woman when his plans are shaken by a phone call.
2016 , , and 鈥檚 musical opens on Broadway at the Music Box Theatre, following a sold out Off-Broadway run. stars as a high school student who is thrust into the center of a rapidly evolving controversy. The production wins six Tony Awards, including Best Actor in a Musical for Platt, and Best Musical.
2017 , a Broadway musical based on the popular Nickelodeon cartoon series, opens at the Palace Theatre. Conceived and directed , it stars in the title role, as Patrick, as Squidward, and as Sandy. An impressive roster of pop and rock stars contribute songs for the show, including and of Aerosmith, , , , , and . It runs 327 performances.
More of Today's Birthdays: (b. 1959). (b. 1964). Nathan Stewart-Jarrett (b. 1985).
Ben Platt and cast of the original Broadway production of Dear Evan Hansen
