1915 The huge Hippodrome Theatre opens one of its most successful extravaganzas, Described by the New York Times as "a gargantuan spectacle, smarter and more sumptuous than any that stage had ever known," the cast includes magician , clown , and with his band. It runs 425 performances.
1930 A hung jury frees of obscenity charges for her play, .
1933 , hailed as one of the greatest stage revues ever, opens at the Music Box Theatre. is author of the "living newspaper"-style sketches. 's score includes "Easter Parade," "Heat Wave," and "Supper Time." Stars include , , , and . Though it opens in the depths of the Depression, it runs for 400 performances.
1939 Birthday of Tony Award winner , whose Broadway credits include originating the title role in , Bill Sampson in , and Fredrik Egerman in .
1953 stars as a teacher's wife who tries to help a "sensitive" teenage boy become a "real man" in the racy-for-its-time drama, , which is one of the first reasonably serious attempts to test the subject of homosexuality on stage. The cast also includes (who wins a Tony Award), , , and . It runs 712 performances. Later in the run, replaces Kerr as the young man.
1954 makes her Broadway debut in 's . An affectionate parody of the musicals of the 1920s, it runs for 485 performances at the Royale Theatre.
1983 , playing in 's Master Harold ...and the Boys in Toronto, suffers a detached retina. He is replaced by .
1999 Thirteen years after winning a Best Actress Tony Award for her star turn playing multiple characters in 's , actor returns to the material for a 29-city national tour. A year later, the production .
2002 Rocker makes his Broadway debut with the first preview of , his collaboration with choreographer . The show runs three years and wins Joel a Tony Award for Best Orchestrations.
2004 Hours before a presidential debate between candidates George W. Bush and John Kerry, the Broadway puppet musical stages its own version of the event in Times Square's Duffy Square, with the two contenders played by puppets. The event warns: "Please Note鈥擜ny similarity between puppets and actual Presidential candidates is purely coincidental."
2006 , who achieved lasting fame in the annals of Broadway history by playing missionary Sarah Brown in the original production of the musical , dies in Los Angeles at age 80.
2009 Pan Asian Repertory Theatre launches its 33rd season Off-Broadway with the East Coast premiere of IMELDA, A New Musical. With a book by Sachi Oyama, music by Nathan Wang and lyrics by Aaron Coleman, the musical is a portrait of the ambitious and controversial Imelda Marcos, the former First Lady of the Philippines.
2010 's , his acclaimed play about British miners who became celebrated artists in the 1930s and '40s, makes its American premiere鈥攚ith its original U.K. cast鈥攁t 's Samuel J. Friedman Theatre.
2010 Ivo van Hove directs Lillian Hellman's The Little Foxes at New York Theatre Workshop Off-Broadway. Elizabeth Marvel stars as Regina Giddens with Cristin Milioti as Alexandra Giddens.
2014 Tom Stoppard's Indian Ink opens as part of Roundabout's Off-Broadway programming. The Scott Ellis-helmed production marks the play's New York premiere.
2018 and 's musical adaptation of the classic 1982 film Tootsie opens its pre-Broadway engagement at Chicago's Cadillac Theatre. stars as Michael Dorsey, a struggling actor who lands a job under the female persona Dorothy Michaels. The production the following year, and wins Tony Awards for Best Actor in a Musical (Fontana) and Best Book of a Musical (Horn).
More of Today's Birthdays: (1862-1932); (1919-2012); Deborah Kerr (1921-2007); (1923-1994); (1924-1984); (b. 1961); (b. 1975); (b. 1978); (b. 1982).
Watch highlights from the musical Tootsie:
