1730 Birthday of , British author of She Stoops to Conquer.
1900 One of the most famous of all stage performers, , is born (as Helen Hayes Brown). She makes her stage debut at age five and stars in such Broadway hits as , , and . In 1958 she stars in 's at what had been the Fulton Theatre but was newly christened "The Helen Hayes Theatre." That theatre is destroyed in 1982 to make way for the Marriott Marquis Hotel. The old Little/Winthrop Ames Theatre on West 44th Street is re-christened the Helen Hayes.
1927 , , and open their musical at the 44th Street Theatre. It stays for 280 performances.
1927 and open their drama , about a crippled beggar who finds love. It serves as the basis of and 's opera , opening precisely eight years later.
1927 stars in the Gallic Broadway revue .
1930 Birthday of British dramatist , who writes , , , , , and other plays.
1935 George and Ira Gershwin collaborate with DuBose Heyward on the opera Porgy and Bess, which runs just 124 performance on Broadway, but goes on to a long life in revivals, repertory, and film. and play the original title characters. In supporting roles are and , the onetime Vaudeville team of Buck and Bubbles.
1946 Birthday of , featured in Broadway's , , and , among other projects.
1947 A groundbreaking musical opens at the Majestic Theatre: , by and . stages the production, which stars , , and . The most highly anticipated musical of the 1940s, Allegro sells 250,000 tickets and has $750,000 in the box office before it even opens. The sets are abstract and minimalist, the chorus serves the same dramatic purpose as the Greek equivalent (comment and interpretation), and a symphony orchestra provides much of the music. Using such non-traditional measures to achieve a dramatic effect is not common for a Broadway show at the time, so the devices provide a rare outlet for less realistic and naturalistic theatre. Although some reviewers think the work unclear, several critics are fascinated. Robert Coleman of the Daily Mirror states that "Perfection and great are not words that are to be lightly used...but Allegro is perfection, great." He also calls it a "stunning blend of beauty, integrity, intelligence, imagination, taste, and skill." The show runs 315 performances. Future note: Hammerstein's gofer on the production is a teen-aged family friend by the name of . On this night, at the opening, he meets another ambitious young talent, , with whom he later creates , , , , and other shows.
1961 Composer makes his Broadway debut with the musical , set in Israel. It runs 543 performances, and earns Herman his first Tony nomination. Before the decade is out, he adds and to his resume.
1962 The of Houston gets a grant of $2,100,000. It is the biggest amount of money given by the Ford Foundation in its grant program of money going to regional theatres. The commitment is for $6.1 million to nine different companies.
1965 Twelve days before she appears on the cover of Life for doing so, begins a 10-day tour of U.S. Military installations in Vietnam at the Bien Hoa air base, performing with the touring company of Hello, Dolly!, with herself in the title role. General William Westmoreland and South Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Cao Ky are in the audience.
1985 , the man responsible for making the King of Siam famous in , dies at age 65. Brynner's work in the stage version of that show is known around the world, having racked up over 4,000 performances, starting in 1951 and not ending until June 1985鈥攐nly two months before his death. Brynner also appeared in films, including the 1956 movie version of The King and I, Anastasia in 1956, and The Magnificent Seven in 1960.
1985 passes away at age 70. Welles is remembered for his Academy Award winning work as a director, writer, actor, and producer, and especially for the 1941 classic, Citizen Kane, which some call the best movie ever made. Welles' theatre work included shows with The Mercury Theatre and the Federal Theatre Project, directing and starring in such plays as and . He also directed the 1956 production of in New York and appeared for the first time in London in 1951, playing the title character in Othello.
1986 A revival of ' , as adapted and translated by , opens on Broadway at the Circle in the Square Theatre. directs a cast that includes , , and . The production lasts 77 performances before closing December 15.
1996 Ten years after opening in the Broadway revival of The Marriage of Figaro, Dana Ivey co-stars with in 's Broadway play , which opens at the Cort Theatre under the auspices of . Critics react with disgust at the black comedy in which a woman has her hands dismembered. The production plays out its limited run of 45 performances.
2002 Opening night for Off-Broadway's The Exonerated, penned by Jessica Blank and , drawn from interviews of forty former death row inmates who were later found not guilty and released. It runs 608 performances and tours.
2002 The first performance of A Man of No Importance, a musical by and , whose previous work includes and . stars as bus conductor and amateur theatre director Alfie Byrne, opposite , , and . The show completes its limited run through the end of the year at Lincoln Center Theater, and receives a cast recording.
2003 revives A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, the rarely-seen 1951 - musical based on the novel of love and life in the working class, with the and Betty Smith libretto revised by director . Two songs are added to the score: "Tuscaloosa" (cut from the show before it arrived on Broadway) and "I'm Proud of You" (a Schwartz-Fields trunk song).
2013 's , starring as the late rock singer, opens on Broadway at the Lyceum Theatre. It runs 140 performances, and earns Davies a Tony nomination.
2016 Comedians and bring their alter egos, 70-something native New Yorkers Gil Faizon and George St. Geegland, to Broadway in at the Lyceum Theatre. The comedy runs for a limited engagement of 120 performances.
More of Today's Birthdays: (1813-1901). (1903-1969). (1933-1998). (1947-2018). (b. 1959). (b. 1961). (b. 1961). (b. 1969). Dan Stevens (b. 1982).
Watch highlights from the 2016 Broadway production of Oh, Hello:
