Friday, May 11, 2012
1903 In The Runaways with a book by Addison Brukhardt and a score by Raymond Hubbell, the hero is transported to a tropical island and will be made a king. The catch? He must marry the queen…
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AM[SHARE]Thursday, May 10, 2012
1838 John Wilkes Booth (1838-1865), perhaps the most infamous actor in American history, is born today. The son of actor Junius Brutus Booth, and brother of actors Junius Brutus Booth Jr. an…
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AM[SHARE]Wednesday, May 9, 2012
1860 Birthday of James M. Barrie (1860-1937), British author and playwright whose creations will include What Every Woman Knows, The Little Minister, The Admirable Crichton and the work that…
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AM[SHARE]Tuesday, May 8, 2012
1892 Birthday of opera singer Ezio Pinza (1892-1957) who made two memorable Broadway appearances, in Fanny and South Pacific, the latter creating the role of Emile deBecque and singing "…
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AM[SHARE]Saturday, May 5, 2012
1955 Baseball, ballet and Gwen Verdon provide the slugging power in Damn Yankees. Adapted from Douglass Wallop's book, The Year the Yankees Lost the Pennant, by Wallop and George Abbott,…
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AM[SHARE]Wednesday, May 2, 2012
1887 Birthday of Vernon Castle who, with wife and dancing partner Irene Castle, would redefine not just what dancing represented on Broadway, but the kind of music used for that dancing. He …
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AM[SHARE]Tuesday, May 1, 2012
1922 Comedy team Potash and Perlmutter are Partners Again. The show plays 31 weeks at the Selwyn Theatre.
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AM[SHARE]Monday, April 30, 2012
1924 Birthday of Sheldon Harnick, who will go on to write lyrics to musicals including Fiorello!, She Loves Me, The Apple Tree and Fiddler on the Roof.
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AM[SHARE]Sunday, April 29, 2012
1899 Happy birthday Edward Kennedy Ellington, who, taking the surname "Duke," became one of the 20th century's most important musician-composers. His Broadway shows, Beggar'…
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AM[SHARE]Tuesday, April 24, 2012
The 26th annual Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS Easter Bonnet Competition raised $3,677,855 in six weeks of nightly curtain-call appeals, the third-highest total in the history of the even…
SOURCE: Playbill at 06:08PM[SHARE]The 26th annual Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS Easter Bonnet Competition raised $3,677,855 in six weeks of nightly curtain-call appeals, the third-highest total in the history of the even…
SOURCE: Playbill at 05:30PM[SHARE]Thursday, April 19, 2012
1946 Actor Tim Curry is born in Cheshire, England. He will create memorable Broadway roles including Frank N. Furter in The Rocky Horror Show, Mozart in Amadeus, Dada artist Tristan Tzara in…
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AM[SHARE]Saturday, April 14, 2012
1865 Our American Cousin starring Laura Keene is in performance tonight when John Wilkes Booth shoots President Abraham Lincoln at the Ford's Theatre in Washington D.C. Booth's broth…
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AM[SHARE]Friday, April 13, 2012
1886 Birthday of Willie Howard (1886-1949), half of the comedy team of Willie and Eugene Howard, who will appear in vaudeville, in musicals Sally and Girl Crazy, and in various editions of r…
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AM[SHARE]Thursday, April 12, 2012
1905 The colossal Hippodrome Theatre opens on Broadway today. The inaugural production is the colorful extravaganza A Yankee Circus on Mars. It will run 176 performances.
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AM[SHARE]Sunday, April 8, 2012
1904 New York City bids adieu to Longacre Square, which had no particular reputation, and says hello to Times Square, which soon develops quite a reputation indeed. Mayor George B. McClellan…
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AM[SHARE]Saturday, April 7, 2012
1913 On The Purple Road there's a disguised Napoleon waiting to woo an unsuspecting girl named Wanda. Valli Valli is the innocent soon to meet her Waterloo at the Liberty Theatre in New …
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AM[SHARE]Friday, April 6, 2012
1947 The first Tony Awards ceremony is held at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York. Thirteen awards are presented to the likes of Helen Hayes, Ingrid Bergman, Fredric March, Jose Ferrer, A…
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AM[SHARE]Thursday, April 5, 2012
1906 Britain's first actor-M.P., A.E.W. Mason, delivers his first speech. The theatre community sees this as a victory, hoping it will have an advocate in the House of Commons.
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AM[SHARE]Wednesday, April 4, 2012
1921 Sarah Bernhardt, who recently had one leg amputated, comes to London to play the title role in Louis Verneuil's Daniel at the Prince's Theatre. When she found a wooden leg unwie…
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AM[SHARE]Saturday, March 31, 2012
The lyrics of Tom Jones have been heard on New York stages continuously for the past half century with only a brief hiatus — something no other lyricist can claim, not even Stephen Son…
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AM[SHARE]Monday, March 12, 2012
Tom Jones, lyricist and librettist of the world's longest-running musical The Fantasticks, is at work on a new musical more than five decades after he saw the opening of his most famous …
SOURCE: Playbill at 11:04AM[SHARE]Sunday, March 4, 2012
1922 Eugene O'Neill's drama The First Man describes the strange tale of a scientist who curses the unborn child in his wife's womb. The wife dies in childbirth and the child thri…
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AM[SHARE]Saturday, March 3, 2012
1930 Bert Lahr is a Flying High mechanic who breaks an aeronautical record because he doesn't know how to land the plane. The writing team of DeSylva,Brown and Henderson provide the lyri…
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AM[SHARE]Saturday, January 14, 2012
1903 Opening night of The Little Princess, Frances Hodgson Burnett play about a child, much in the same vein as her Secret Garden. Little Princess will run just 34 performances.
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AM[SHARE]Friday, January 13, 2012
1925 Birthday of one of Broadway's all-time greatest leading ladies, Gwen Verdon (1925-2000). She was nominated for the Tony Award as Best Actress or Featured Actress in a Musical six ti…
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AM[SHARE]Friday, January 6, 2012
1768 Birthday of John Durang (1768-1816), identified by scholars as one of the first American-born professional dancers and actors. Known for his "Dwarf Dance," "Sailor's …
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AM[SHARE]Sunday, January 1, 2012
1900 Chris and the Wonderful Lamp is based on the Arabian Nights and opens at Hammerstein's Victoria Theatre in New York. This musical, with a book by Glen MacDonough and score by John P…
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AM[SHARE]Saturday, December 31, 2011
In celebration of Playbill’s new site, Playbill Vault, we offer a month-long theatrical treasure hunt! Playbill Vault offers an interactive treasure trove for theatre fans, students, a…
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AM[SHARE]Friday, December 30, 2011
In celebration of Playbill’s new site, Playbill Vault, we offer a month-long theatrical treasure hunt! Playbill Vault offers an interactive treasure trove for theatre fans, students, a…
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AM[SHARE]Thursday, December 29, 2011
In celebration of Playbill’s new site, Playbill Vault, we offer a month-long theatrical treasure hunt! Playbill Vault offers an interactive treasure trove for theatre fans, students, a…
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AM[SHARE]Loading more stories…
