1904 , the famed female impersonator, makes his Broadway debut in Mr. Wix of Wickham, the unsuccessful musical at the Bijou Theatre. 19-year-old writes some of the songs for the show. Kern goes on to write music for and during his long, successful career. Also on this date, , Shakespeare actor extraordinaire, stars in a Chicago production of Romeo and Juliet.
1910 For the first time, directs and writes a non-musical triumph. Get-Rich-Quick Wallingford, his new comedy, opens at the Gaiety Theatre. It is based on the novel by about a con man who reforms. The show runs for 424 performances with its stars, and .
1962 Opening performance of 's translated version of 's Mann Ist Mann. Another version, translated by Gerhard Nellhaus, opened the night before at The Living Theatre. The New Repertory Company stages tonight's production at the Masque Theatre, directed by John Hancock and starring and . Both productions run 175 performances.
1974 The Winter Garden Theatre is evacuated due to a bomb threat, at the first preview for the revival of . Gene Brown's book, Showtime, notes that librettist joked with the audience during the break that acclaimed star was quite a "bombshell" herself. The show resumes shortly after the evacuation.
1996 's , about a successful businessman who attempts to rehash a past affair with a young teacher, opens at Broadway's Royale Theatre. The -helmed production stars , , and . The production runs 116 performances.
2000 Less than two weeks after ending its run at , the revival of 's Jitney reopens at the larger Union Square Theatre Off-Broadway. The first play written by the Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright looks into the lives of a group of black men working at a gypsy cab company (or jitney station) in 1970s Pittsburgh.
2001 Led by Cristyne Lategano Nicholas, the NYC Tourism Chief, and Tim Zagat, president of the famous Zagat surveys of restaurants, New York City business leaders rally at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre to express support for the theatre industry in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, and to urge theatre fans to continue buying tickets.
2002 Nunsense, the Off-Broadway novelty musical about a convent full of wacky nuns, spawns its fourth sequel: Meshuggah-Nuns, an entirely new show "with a touch of Yiddish," at the Fireside Theatre in Minneapolis. Previous entries in the series: Nunsense, Nunsense II, Sister Amnesia's Country Western Nunsense Jamboree, and Nuncrackers (the Christmas themed show), not counting Nunsense A-Men, the original show, but with an all-male cast.
2004 The television adaptation of 's Tony- and Pulitzer-winning drama Angels in America wins a record 11 Emmy Awards.
2006 , 77, the stage, film, and television actor and model who played a feisty, love-hungry tourist in the Broadway musical , dies at Wingate Nursing Home in Fishkill, New York.
2012 The world premiere of , and 's Allegiance鈥擜 New American Musical, charting the lives of Japanese Americans who were placed in concentration camps on U.S. soil during World War II, opens at The Old Globe in San Diego, California. Directed by , it stars , and . The production transfers to Broadway .
Today's Birthdays: (1881-1942). (1889-1973). (1913-1970). (b. 1927). (b. 1933). (b. 1948). (b. 1949). (b. 1955). (b. 1971). (b. 1972). (b. 1978).
Kerry Ellis, Ramin Karimloo and Norman Bowman in Murder Ballad
