1894 U.S. premiere of 's Ghosts, starring Ida Jeffries Goodfriend, at the Berkeley Lyceum Theatre.
1914 's The Legend of Leonora plays the Empire Theatre in New York. stars in the play about a woman on trial for pushing a man out of a train. It's a comedy.
1921 Birthday of Swiss playwright , whose best-known work, , is produced with and , and subsequently adapted as by and .
1925 and ask at the 39th Street Theatre. The co-authors star as a down-and-out boxer and manager who disguise themselves as servants to help a wealthy young man expose his corrupt brother-in-law. The comedy runs for 618 performances.
1928 Twenty-nine-year-old Elizabeth Scott wins the architectural design competition for a new Stratford Memorial Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon, England. Scott, the lone female entrant, incorporates some of the remains of the burnt building, but her Art Deco design breaks with the former Victorian tradition.
1939 produces at the Belasco Theatre. 's drama about two men standing up against mob rule stars , , and .
1975 , ' adaption of The Wizard of Oz, opens at the Majestic Theatre and proves to be a sleeper hit, eventually running 1,672 performances and winning the Tony Award as Best Musical. The score includes "If You Believe," "Be a Lion," and the disco hit "Ease on Down the Road." Cast with Black actors and set in an African-American milieu, the show proves a springboard for the career of , who plays Dorothy, and features , , , , and in supporting roles. A 1978 film version stars Diana Ross and Michael Jackson.
1980 's premieres on Broadway at the Trafalgar Theatre. , , and star in the production directed by .
1984 and star in 's at the Plymouth Theatre. The play also stars and . The Real Thing wins 1984's Tony Award for Best Play, as well as acting awards for Irons, Close, and Baranski, and an award for director .
1989 's Off-Broadway play, , transfers from the to the John Golden Theatre. The play examines a group of young achievers who search for the truth about their lives and loves. receives a 1989 Tony Award nomination for his portrayal of Drew Paley.
1990 , who appeared in the original companies of 's , , , and , dies at age 75.
2003 's Pulitzer-winning drama, , closes on Broadway after 917 performances.
2003 Playwright dies at age 80. Her comedy, , is one of Broadway's longest-running non-musicals ever, at 1,572 performances. She had a best-seller (later adapted as a film and TV series) with Please Don't Eat the Daisies, a book about her life in Larchmont, New York, with her husband, New York Times theatre critic Walter Kerr.
2016 , whose experimental and socially searching pieces of musical theatre were a mainstay of 1970s and '80s theatre in New York, dies at age 64. Her breakout work was the musical , which ran on Broadway for eight months in 1978, and earned her Tony nominations for Best Book, Best Score, Best Choreography, and Best Direction.
2020 Following a nearly four-year run, Waitress hangs up its Broadway apron for the final time, having played 33 previews and 1,544 regular performances at the Brooks Atkinson Theatre. Waitress made history as the first Broadway musical to have four women in the four top creative spots: composer Sara Bareilles, book writer Jessie Nelson, director Diane Paulus, and choreographer Lorin Latarro. Bareilles earned Tony and Grammy nominations for her work on the score.
More of Today's Birthdays: (1879-1959). (1890-1957). (1931-1989). (b. 1931). (b. 1946). (b. 1975).
