1903 Mam'selle Napoleon is in the musical at the Knickerbocker Theatre. Produced by Held's husband , with a score by , the show has a 43-performance run.
1911 Birthday of actor , who creates many memorable roles in the 1930s to 1950s, most notably Willy Loman in .
1925 "Why a duck?" The ineffable question is first asked on Broadway at the opening night of the / musical at the Lyric Theatre with four young stars who overshadow even the august writing team: , , , , and . The anarchic nonsense about the Florida land rush runs 377 performances and is made into a classic film (minus most of the songs).
1925 Birthday of entertainer , who begins in small clubs and rises to become a Las Vegas headliner, film star, and member of the "Rat Pack" of 1950s swingers. His Broadway work includes starring roles in the musicals and .
1930 scandalizes Broadway with the streetwalker's lament, "Love For Sale," in the musical , which opens at B.S. Moss' Broadway Theatre for a run of 168 performances. Included in the huge cast are and Fred Waring's Pennsylvanians.
1937 It's a short at the Longacre Theatre. The drama about a group of Spanish Loyalists lasts only five performances.
1943 's romantic comedy opens at the Morosco Theatre, and goes on to a remarkable 1,557-performance run.
1948 is Henry VIII and is in the play by . The drama dealing with the King's betrothal and marriage to Anne Boleyn runs 286 performances.
1949 blinks her big round eyes and warbles "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend" on the opening night of the musical at the Ziegfeld Theatre. It runs 740 performances and makes Channing into an icon.
1965 and star in . directs and also adapted the work from Fleur de Cactus by and . It runs 1,234 performances.
1979 Today's Saturday matinee of is the 3,243 performance, making it the longest-running show in Broadway history to that point. Grease passes , which had overtaken in 1972, when Grease was 128 performances into its pre-Broadway run. The long-run title is now held by 's .
1991 opens at the Marquis Theatre鈥攁nd closes 9 performances later, despite a book by , a score by and , and performances by , , and .
1994 Faith Prince opens on Broadway playing a dead housewife who returns to life in ' It runs 12 performances at the Brooks Atkinson Theatre.
1996 The epic musical Ragtime, with a book by and a score by & , has its world premiere in Toronto. Reviews are strong for the show's , but the show's high cost, coupled with other financial woes, eventually wreck its producing organization, SFX Productions buys what remains of the company, only to be taken over itself by Clear Channel.
1999 opens her new show, , at the site of her mother's triumphant stage appearance decades earlier: The Palace Theatre. Minnelli on Minnelli is a musical tribute to , featuring songs from movies that had been directed by Minnelli, sung by his daughter, Liza, such as "The Boy Next Door" from Meet Me in St. Louis and "I Got Rhythm" from An American in Paris.
2002 's staging of the opera opens on Broadway, with a directorial concept that makes it resemble a Broadway musical. The show runs 228 performances and wins a special Tony honor for its three rotating casts of leads.
2011 The LeVay family of 's gather at their plush Martha's Vineyard home for a summer weekend of scrabble and secrets. Tony winner , , , and star in the comedy that opens on Broadway at the Cort Theatre.
2016 The world premiere of and 鈥檚 musical The Band's Visit, based on the award-winning film of the same name, opens Off-Broadway at the . directs a cast that includes , , and . The production the following year, and wins 10 Tony Awards, including Best Musical.
More of Today's Birthdays: (1862-1921). (1894-1961). (1930-2014). (1934-2003). (1936-2009). (b. 1939). (b. 1946). Bob Martin (b. 1962). Ingrid Michaelson (b. 1979).
Katrina Lenk, Tony Shalhoub, and Andrew Polk in The Band's Visit
