1858 Birthday of , vaudeville comedian and musical comedy star, who was featured in Wang, Hoity-Toity, and many early Gilbert & Sullivan productions. His signature bit was a dramatic recitation of "Casey at the Bat," which he reportedly did more than 10,000 times.
1924 Librettist dies in Stamford, Connecticut, at age 57. He started his career as a journalist at the New York World. He later worked with on .
1946 Although protested by some cast members over demeaning stereotypes, runs 113 performances. and collaborate on the all-Black musical. The powerhouse cast includes the , in her Broadway debut, and .
1970 hears the . Based on the film All About Eve, the musical has a book by and and songs by and . directs and choreographs the 896-performance run at the Palace Theatre. At the 1970 Tony Awards, Bacall wins Best Actress in a Musical, Fields wins Best Direction of a Musical and Best Choreography, and the production wins Best Musical.
1972 , who originally turned down the role of Pseudolus in , only to take the role of Marcus Lycus in the film, finally gets to play the wily slave in a revival of the musical. He wins the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical for what turns out to be his final Broadway role.
1978 makes his Broadway debut with , which manages to spoof dozens of film classics. It runs just 21 performances at the ANTA Theatre.
1980 's , which tells the story of a romance between a deaf woman and a hearing man, opens on Broadway. It runs 887 performances, and wins the Tony Award as Best Play. Lead , who is deaf in real life, wins the Tony as Best Actress in a Play.
1982 's takes over the Music Box Theatre on Broadway. , , and are the threesome in the drama that unfolds over the body of a murdered baby. Plummer wins the Tony Award for her performance.
1998 When , writer-performer of Some People, tried out his newer work at Off-Off Broadway's Performance Space 122 in March of 1997, he hoped to hone the show on the road and bring it back to New York. And that's just what happened as his solo show, Jails, Hospitals & Hip-Hop, returns to PS 122 for a run through April 18.
2000 's dance piece, , opens at the Vivian Beaumont Theater. It runs 1,010 performances and wins the Tony Award as Best Musical despite the fact that it has no original score and no musicians (dances are performed to taped tracks of pop and classical pieces).
2000 , the 1998 Tony Award winner for Best Musical from and and directed by , reaches its 1,000th performance at the New Amsterdam Theatre. The show, based on the animated film of the same name, opened on Broadway November 13, 1997.
2003 British comedians and pay wacky tribute to Morecambe and Wise in the imported hit , a silly bit of clowning with an unusual gimmick: a different "Mystery Guest Star" each night. Among MGSs during the show's run: , , and .
2008 's play closes at the Booth Theatre after 133 performances. later wins the Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Play for his performance.
2012 Judith of Bethulia, actor-playwright 's latest stage comedy that takes on the 1914 silent Hollywood Biblical epic, begins a limited run at Theater for the New City. directs a cast that includes Busch (in the title role), , and .
2014 stars as a woman who journeys down two possible roads to self discovery in and 's Broadway musical . Though not as successful as Kitt and Yorkey's previous musical鈥攖he Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize-winning 鈥攊t does manage to run a year at the Richard Rodgers Theatre.
More of Today's Birthdays: 1880. 1922. 1929. 1930. 1933. 1935. 1937. 1947.
Watch highlights from the 2014 Broadway production of If/Then, starring Idina Menzel:
