1880 Writer , whose short story "The Idyll of Miss Sarah Brown" forms the basis for the musical , is born in Manhattan, Kansas.
1920 The musical opens at the Cort Theatre, starring , , and .
1955 's Iliad-based opens, starring and , both of whom earn Tony nominations, along with director and the play itself.
1956 A new CBS series, Playhouse 90, premieres. Many call it the pinnacle of live drama on television. Throughout its run the series gives voice to such writers as , , and , and showcases versions of such plays as and .
1960 opens on Broadway at the Lyceum Theatre. The play, about a working class white girl who sleeps with a black man in her provincial town and becomes pregnant, features the likes of , , , and . Playwright is only 19. The play runs 49 weeks.
1962 Every producer longs to hear the phrase, "long line at the box office." David Merrick self-actualizes it today鈥攖he day after opened on Broadway. Faced with mixed reviews, Merrick closes all but one of the windows at the Shubert Theatre box office, forcing ticket buyers to stand in one long line.
1972 The songs of get an airing in the Off-Broadway revue Oh, Coward! at the New Theatre. , , and star in the show, which runs 294 performances.
1981 's landmark adaptation of ' opens at the Plymouth Theatre. The production is historic in two ways: It's presented in two parts over two evenings鈥攖he first such show to win the Tony Award as Best Play. It's also the first to charge $100 a ticket to see the entire epic. and direct the production, which stars .
1990 's opens on Broadway at the Criterion Center Stage Right. The story of a dedicated teacher who tries to save a gifted Hispanic student from the trappings of urban poverty and prejudice plays 13 performances and closes October 16.
1998 The world premiere of Evan Smith's The Uneasy Chair, starring Roger Rees and , opens Off-Broadway at . The play, directed by , tells of a miserly boarding house owner who sues her crotchety tenant over a breach of promise.
2007 Playwright Theresa Rebeck makes her Broadway debut with Mauritius, in which two sisters enter a tug of war over an album of precious postage stamps at the Biltmore Theatre. Starring ALison Pill, Katie Finneran, Bobby Cannavale, F. Murray Abraham, and Dylan Baker star, directed by Doug Hughes.
2009 , actor-writer 's darkly comic autobiographical solo show about her adventures in Hollywood鈥攁nd her experiences with substance abuse and mental illness鈥攐pens at Broadway's Studio 54.
2011 The Berliner Ensemble, the German theatre company founded by and Helene Weigel in 1949, makes its New York debut with Brecht and 's The Threepenny Opera at the . directs the five performance run.
2012 's , a four-person darkly comic drama set in Florida that examines the meaning of religion and life, opens on Broadway at the Cort Theatre. Directed by , the play stars , , , and .
2016 , who won a Tony Award in 1981 for her volcanic performance as Effie White in the original , returns to Broadway in the role of cabaret singer Shug Avery in . Holliday replaces , who departed the production on October 2.
More of Today's Birthdays: (1878鈥�1950). (b. 1924). (b. 1946). (b. 1949). (b. 1967). (b. 1976).
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