1920 Opening night of the at the New Amsterdam Theatre, featuring performances by , , and ; and music by , , and . It runs 123 performances.
1921 Birthday of , founder and longtime executive director of the /Public Theater. Aside from the annual free productions of Shakespeare in New York's Central Park, Papp's NYSF presents annual subscription seasons of works by two generations of theatre artists, with a special emphasis on work by and about minorities. Productions under his auspices include , , , , and .
1964 , , and star in 's on Broadway at the Morosco Theatre. The Actors Studio Theatre production is directed by .
1965 A musical classic returns to the New York stage as the Music Theater of Lincoln Center revives Kismet at the New York State Theater. returns to the role he originated in the Broadway production of the musical for the length of its six-week run.
1976 opens at Broadway's Broadhurst Theatre following a 2,124 performance Off-Broadway run. The musical directed and conceived by is based on the Gospel according to St. Matthew. It closes on September 4, 1977, after 527 performances.
1978 The gay-themed revue, Crimes Against Nature, begins a 10-week engagement at the Actors Playhouse in New York. Created by the Gay Men's Theatre Collective of San Francisco, the show deals with both current events and more personal gay concerns.
1998 Seven playwrights, commissioned by the New York-based , see their Love's Fire open at Off-Broadway's Public Theater. , , , , , , and were all asked to contribute one-act plays inspired by 's sonnets. The result, directed by , plays a limited run through July 5.
2006 The north half of Times Square becomes a construction zone as the building at the corner of 46th Street and Seventh Avenue, which for decades housed a Howard Johnson鈥檚 restaurant and the Off-Broadway Duffy Theatre, is torn down and the 1974-vintage TKTS discount ticket booth in Father Duffy Square is dismantled. TKTS moves to a temporary space in the ground floor of the Marriott Marquis Hotel. The landmark statue of is encased in plywood for the duration.
2011 Miche Braden stars in The Devil鈥檚 Music: The Life and Blues of Bessie Smith at St. Luke鈥檚 Theatre Off-Broadway. Written by Angelo Parra, with conception and direction by Joe Brancato, the staging stars Braden as the famed singer whose career was cut tragically short by a car crash in 1937.
2011 Tony Speciale鈥檚 Unnatural Acts debuts Off-Broadway starring Roe Hartrampf, Jess Burkle, Frank De Julio, Nick Westrate, Joe Curnutte, and Will Rogers. The story of Harvard鈥檚 secret court to expel gay students from the Ivy League plays at Classic Stage Company.
2016 Samuel D. Hunter鈥檚 The Healing has its world premiere Off-Broadway at Theatre Row's Clurman Theatre. The Obie-winning playwright鈥檚 newest work reunites a group of friends who met at a summer camp 25 years ago, where the head counselor led them to believe their disabilities would be cured through the power of prayer.
2017 An Off-Broadway revival of Horton Foote鈥檚 The Traveling Lady opens at the Cherry Lane Theatre. Austin Pendleton directs a cast including Lynn Cohen, Jill Tanner, and Tony winner Karen Ziemba.
2017 The world premiere of Bastard Jones opens at the cell, starring Evan Ruggiero. Based on the novel The History of Tom Jones: A Foundling by Henry Fielding, the musical features a book by Marc Acito, music by Amy Engelhardt, and lyrics by Acito and Engelhardt.
2017 An intense and graphic staging of 's , adapted and directed by and , opens on Broadway at the Hudson Theatre. , , and star in the production, which was first seen in the U.K. After reports that the disturbing staging is causing audience members to faint, the producers announce that no one under the age of 13 will be allowed to enter the theatre.
More of Today's Birthdays: (1901鈥�1961), (1902鈥�1971), (1906鈥�2002), (1909鈥�2006), (1909鈥�1958), (1919鈥�1980), (1928鈥�2014), (b. 1932), (b. 1949), (b. 1953).
