1833 Birthday of master actor , a major interpreter of Shakespeare and brother to actor Junius Brutus Booth and presidential assassin John Wilkes Booth. Broadway's Booth Theatre is named for him.
1906 makes her Broadway debut in the title role of Hedda Gabler at the Princess Theatre. A major interpreter of Ibsen's female central characters for three decades, she plays Hedda a total of four times on Broadway, and inspires two generations of actors.
1916 Captain Kidd, Jr. has a sixteen-week adventure. , , and appear in the farce.
1922 and send up the nascent Hollywood phenomenon in the comedy , about a bumpkin who stumbles his way into becoming a movie star. It runs 398 performances at the Cort Theatre.
1929 Val Gielgud, John's brother, premieres his new play, Chinese White, at the Arts Theatre in London.
1930 , by and , opens a 459-performance run at the National Theatre. The story of guests and employees at a Berlin hotel, whose lives intersect at random producing unexpected results, is later made into a film and, in 1989, .
1963 Movie star stars as rebellious mental patient Randle P. McMurphy in , based on the novel. The production at the Cort Theatre is a flop, running just 82 performances. But an Off-Broadway production in the late 1960s proves a huge hit, leading to an Oscar-winning film, and a .
1965 stars in her first and only musical, , opposite (later a game show host) and . It runs 248 performances at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre.
1973 , a stage musical based on the story by and on the and -scored film version, has an unlucky thirteen week life span at the Uris Theatre, despite a cast including , , and . A , starring in the title role, has a similarly short run.
1974 's double-bill of South African dramas and opens a 159-performance run at the Edison Theatre. Stars and share the Tony Award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Play.
1997 Disney opens its second musical on Broadway: , an adaptation of its animated film musical, with a score by , , , and others. Making spectacularly innovative use of masks and puppets designed by director , the show wins the 1998 Tony Award for Best Musical.
1997 Banquo and a banquet are yours for the taking at a special performance of Macbeth, opening at Off-Broadway's New Perspectives Theatre Company. A medieval banquet is served to audience members during the course of the play. The play-cum-banquet takes place at The Cathedral of St. John the Divine. The three course meal is created by Vibeke Fazakerley, the founder of the historical catering firm Primary Sauces in North London, England. Her sourcebooks for this particular meal include a 12th century Danish translation of the oldest-known European cooking document; the first course consists of Rostyd Beef, Buttered Wortys, Fysshe Hattes, and Brede.
2001 Roadside, the latest musical from and , opens Off-Broadway at the . It closes in late December within a month of the closing of their first musical, The Fantasticks, after a phenomenal 42-year run.
2003 There is as much drama offstage as on at one of the most talked-about shows of the fall, . Three-time Tony host makes her Broadway producing debut with the parable about the price of fame. Set in the '80s punk club world, the musical biography of rocker (George O'Dowd) has an original score by O'Dowd, incorporating two of his period hits. In a twist, O'Dowd appears on stage playing, not himself, but fellow party boy Leigh Bowery. Newcomer plays Boy George. After receiving savage reviews, the production runs 100 performances, with financial support by O'Donnell.
2006 Tom Everett Scott stars as a closeted Hollywood actor in Douglas Carter Beane's The Little Dog Laughed, opening today at Broadway's Cort Theatre. Julie White will go on to win a Tony Award for her role as the actor's agent, who is doing anything she can to keep his "slight recurring case of homosexuality" under wraps.
2008 , the hit London musical based on the 2000 film about a working class boy who dreams of becoming a ballet dancer, opens on Broadway at the Imperial Theare. The show has music by Elton John and book and lyrics by , who wrote the film. The demanding part of Billy is rotated among young actors , , and Trent Kowalik. The cast also features London star as the dance teacher, with American stars and as members of Billy’s family. It runs 1,312 performances.
2010 After a heralded summer run as part of Shakespeare in the Park, production of , starring as Shylock, opens on Broadway at the Broadhurst Theatre. Director stages the dark take on the tale of greed, love, faith, and vengeance, which brings a brutal pathos to Shakespeare's comedy.
2012 Broadway audiences are transported to Victorian-era London to help resolve ' final—and unfinished—tale as 's revival of opens on Broadway at Studio 54. The musical stars as Drood, alongside as Princess Puffer, as Chairman, as John Jasper, as Reverend Mr. Crisparkle, as Helena Landless, as Rosa Bud, and as Neville Landless.
More of Today's Birthdays: (1853-1927). (1906-1986). (1914-1956). (1922-2016). (1932-2000). (b. 1947). Sammy Williams (1948-2018). (b. 1953). Chris Noth (b. 1954). (b. 1955). (b. 1975).
-Matthew-Murphy.jpg)
