Thursday, October 16, 2014
1854 Happy Birthday Oscar Wilde, born today in Dublin. He will go on to write An Ideal Husband, The Importance of Being Earnest and other glittering comedies, before being laid low in a slan…
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AM[SHARE]What does it take to write, create or star in a big Broadway musical? Hard work, talent, luck—all backed up by a good education. You have to supply the first three yourself, but Pl…
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AM[SHARE]Wednesday, October 15, 2014
1881 Birth of Pelham Grenville Wodehouse " P.G. Wodehouse to theatre lovers " in England. He will go on to write the "Jeeves" stories as well as many Broadway musicals including Ro…
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AM[SHARE]Tuesday, October 14, 2014
1893 Lillian Gish, film acting pioneer whose Broadway career lasted from 1913 to 1976, is born today. Her stage shows will include Camille, The Trip to Bountiful and several versions of Uncl…
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AM[SHARE]Monday, October 13, 2014
1903 Victor Herbert's Babes in Toyland opens on Broadway, introducing the songs "I Can't Do the Sum," "Go To Sleep," "Toyland" and "The March of th…
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AM[SHARE]Sunday, October 12, 2014
1914 Broadway premiere of George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion, with Mrs. Patrick Campbell as Eliza Doolittle. The drama will serve as the basis of the 1956 musical My Fair Lady.
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:09AM[SHARE]Saturday, October 11, 2014
1918 Jerome Robbins born today. The choreographer spent most of his early career moving easily between the worlds of classical ballet and Broadway, choreographing and/or directing classics i…
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AM[SHARE]Friday, October 10, 2014
1730 Birthday of Oliver Goldsmith, British author of She Stoops to Conquer.
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AM[SHARE]Thursday, October 9, 2014
Students applying to colleges and universities this fall share the tasks of filling out forms, writing essays and getting letters of recommendation, etc. But performing arts students have on…
SOURCE: Playbill at 02:29PM[SHARE]What does it take to write, create or star in a Broadway comedy? Hard work, talent, luck—all backed up by a good education. You have to supply the first three yourself, but Playbil…
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AM[SHARE]1893 Arthur Wing Pinero courts scandal with his play The Second Mrs. Tanqueray, about a man who brings misery to all with a second marriage. Mrs. Patrick Campbell plays the title character a…
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AM[SHARE]Wednesday, October 8, 2014
1857 Birth of Edward Franklin Albee, who, with B.F. Keith, controlled one of the biggest circuits in vaudeville in the early 20th century. Also, grandfather and namesake of Pulitzer-winn…
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AM[SHARE]Tuesday, October 7, 2014
1907 The Gay White Way, a musical revue whose title meant something quite different in that innocent era, opens at the Casino Theatre for a then-healthy run of 105 performances. Blanche …
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AM[SHARE]Monday, October 6, 2014
1919 Hitchy-Koo 1919 proves to be a minor success for star Raymond Hitchcock, but it produces the first song hit, "Old Fashioned Garden," for its 28-year-old composer, …
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AM[SHARE]Sunday, October 5, 2014
What does it take to write, create or star in a Broadway drama like The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time? Hard work, talent, luck—all backed up by a good education…
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AM[SHARE]1896 Broadway premiere of Secret Service, which becomes a perennial touring hit for its author and star, William Gillette.
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AM[SHARE]Saturday, October 4, 2014
1880 Writer Damon Runyon, whose short story "The Idyll of Miss Sarah Brown" will go on to form the basis for the musical Guys and Dolls, is born today.
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AM[SHARE]Friday, October 3, 2014
1859 Eleanora Duse born in Italy. One of the leading actresses of her day, "The Great Duse" will champion the realistic playwrights of the early 20th century, and will have some of…
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AM[SHARE]Thursday, October 2, 2014
1890 Julius Henry Marx is born in New York. Under the nickname "Groucho," he and his brothers form one of the most enduring comedy acts ever, The Marx Brothers, rising from Vaudevi…
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AM[SHARE]Wednesday, October 1, 2014
Where the principals of the Broadway play The Country House pursued their college studies.
SOURCE: Playbill at 11:59PM[SHARE]1928 Mae West's controversial play Pleasure Man opens at the Biltmore Theatre. It's the story of an actor who has impregnated so many women that the brother of one of them takes up a…
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AM[SHARE]Tuesday, September 30, 2014
1915 The huge Hippodrome Theatre opens one of its most successful extravaganzas, Hip! Hip! Hooray!. Described by the New York Times as "a gargantuan spectacle, smarter and more sumptuou…
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:16AM[SHARE]Monday, September 29, 2014
1921 The operetta Blossom Time opens on Broadway. With a score of Franz Schubert themes rearranged by Sigmund Romberg, the show will go on to reach a then-epic run of 576 performances an…
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AM[SHARE]Sunday, September 28, 2014
Where the principals of the Broadway revival of You Can’t Take It With You pursued their college studies.
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AM[SHARE]Saturday, September 27, 2014
1898 Birthday of Vincent Youmans (1898-1946), one of the iconic Broadway composers of the 1920s, whose career will go into a nosedive after that bubbly decade ends. His scores will inclu…
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AM[SHARE]Friday, September 26, 2014
1898 Composer George Gershwin is born in New York. He'll go on to write Porgy and Bess, "Rhapsody in Blue," Girl Crazy and the Pulitzer Prize-winning musical, Of Thee I Sin…
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AM[SHARE]Thursday, September 25, 2014
1928 Chee-Chee, Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart's musical about castration in ancient China, opens to searing reviews and goes on to close after just 31 performances, the team's …
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AM[SHARE]Wednesday, September 24, 2014
1902 Cheryl Crawford (1902-1986), one of the most powerful and influential women in Broadway history, is born today. As producer and/or director, she will have a decisive hand in product…
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AM[SHARE]Tuesday, September 23, 2014
1912 Another upbeat musical hit for George M. Cohan and his family: Broadway Jones which opens a 176-performance run today at Cohan's eponymous theatre.
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AM[SHARE]Monday, September 22, 2014
High school classes have just begun, but seniors who want to pursue studies of theatre, music or dance now find themselves confronting one of the biggest decisions of the lives: where to app…
SOURCE: Playbill at 10:19AM[SHARE]"This book is the ‘bang for your buck’ event of the year!”
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