Monday, May 25, 2015
1901 A man marries his fiancee On the Quiet because his parents want him to finish Yale. Playwright Augustus Thomas based this comedy on a real incident. It unfolds at the Madison Square The…
SOURCE: Playbill at 05:58PM1905 Birthday of composer Harold Arlen (1905-1986) a cantor's son who cut his musical teeth in 1920s Harlem, and went on to write music for Broadway shows, Star and Garter. Jamaica, House of…
SOURCE: Playbill at 05:58PM1898 Birthday of Broadway leading lady and producer Katharine Cornell (1898-1974), who starred in and/or produced A Bill of Divorcement, The Age of Innocence, The Barretts of Wimpole Street,…
SOURCE: Playbill at 05:58PM1930 Birthday of Marni Nixon, singer whose voice will be dubbed into the mouths of better-known performers, including Natalie Wood in the film of West Side Story. She will make her Broadway …
SOURCE: Playbill at 05:58PM1876 Birthday of Broadway comedian Victor Moore (1876-1962), who starred or co-starred in the original casts of many musical comedies, notably Of Thee I Sing, Anything Goes, Louisiana Purcha…
SOURCE: Playbill at 05:58PM1911 Chicago's Columbia Theatre opens its doors today. Architect J.E.O. Pridmore designed this house which seats 1,550. In 1923 it will become the Adelphi. In 1974 its doors will close for d…
SOURCE: Playbill at 05:58PM1907 The Herald Square Theatre in New York hosts the American premiere of Widower's Houses. George Bernard Shaw's comedy is offered by the Shuberts in 16 special matinee performances. Effie …
SOURCE: Playbill at 05:58PM1925 Ernest Truex is The Fall Guy for a group of dope dealers. This James Gleason-George Abbott comedy will run at the Eltinge Theatre for almost three months.
SOURCE: Playbill at 05:58PM1928 Birthday of playwright Edward Albee, who will go on to write Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, The Goat, Or Who Is Sylvia? and Pulitzer-winners, A Delicate Balance, Seascape and Three Ta…
SOURCE: Playbill at 05:58PM1928 It's one for all, and all for almost 10 months of The Three Musketeers. William A. McGuire stages his book based on the Dumas novel. P.G. Wodehouse and Clifford Grey write the lyrics fo…
SOURCE: Playbill at 05:58PM1878 Birthday of legendary dancer Bill "Bojangles" Robinson (1878-1949), whose Broadway appearances will include Memphis Bound!, The Hot Mikado and Blackbirds of 1928.
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AMSunday, May 24, 2015
1925 Godfrey Tearle is Hamlet in the Fellowship Players production at the Prince of Wales Theatre. The Fellowship offers Sunday performances so these employed professionals have the chance t…
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AMSaturday, May 23, 2015
1904 The Southerners, with a score by black composer Will Marion Cook, is the first time an entire black chorus is used in a show with a white cast. Lead Eddie Leonard appears in blackface i…
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AMFriday, May 22, 2015
1907 Birthday of Laurence Olivier (1907-1989), preeminent British actor of his generation. His dozens of notable appearances included Romeo and Juliet, The Entertainer, Becket, Private L…
SOURCE: Playbill at 10:57PMThursday, May 21, 2015
1929 Some of the highlights of A Night in Venice are Ted Healy wrestling bears and the choreography of Busby Berkeley. This revue will run at the Shubert Theatre on Broadway for 22 weeks.
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AMWednesday, May 20, 2015
1919 Guy Bolton and P.G. Wodehouse call this Kissing Time at London's Winter Garden Theatre. Ivan Caryll provides the music for this tale of complications arising when French ladies carr…
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AMTuesday, May 19, 2015
1924 The Marx Brothers star in I'll Say She Is at the Casino Theatre in New York. This revue, with a book by Will B. Johnstone and music by Tom Johnstone, takes the boys through murder,…
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AMMonday, May 18, 2015
1923 Sweet Nell of Old Drury runs beyond the season at the 48th Street Theatre in New York. Alfred Lunt stars as Charles II and Laurette Taylor as his mistress Nell Gwynne. Lynn Fontanne and…
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AMSaturday, May 16, 2015
1946 "No you can't get a man with a gun," but when you're Ethel Merman you can sure try. She's the star of Richard Rodgers & Oscar Hammerstein II's producti…
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AMFriday, May 15, 2015
1922 Father and son playwriting team J. C. Nugent and Elliott Nugent come up with Kempy. They also star in this comedy of mixed-up lovers, staged by Augustin Duncan. Performances will ru…
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AMThursday, May 14, 2015
1931 Playwright, producer David Belasco dies today in New York City. He began his theatrical life as a child actor in California and started writing plays in his twenties. He adapted the Joh…
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AMWednesday, May 13, 2015
1907 Writer-playwright Daphne du Maurier is born to actor Gerald and actress Muriel du Maurier. Daphne will later adapt her novel Rebecca into a play.
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AMTuesday, May 12, 2015
1905 Theatrical producer Sam S. Shubert dies today in a train accident. His brothers Lee and J.J. will honor him by naming many of the theaters they are to build after him, including their f…
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AMMonday, May 11, 2015
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 12:00AMSunday, May 10, 2015
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…
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AMSaturday, May 9, 2015
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 …
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AMFriday, May 8, 2015
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 12:00AMThursday, May 7, 2015
1915 Among the dead after the sinking of the Lusitania are producer-manager Charles Frohman and playwright Charles Klein. Frohman's first success was Shenandoah. In 1893 he opened th…
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AMWednesday, May 6, 2015
1912 Richard Le Gallienne's Orestes stars Edyth Olive and Rathmel Wilson. It plays at London's Boudoir Theatre.
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AMTuesday, May 5, 2015
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 Ge…
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AMMonday, May 4, 2015
1859 Birthday of A.L. Erlanger (1859-1930), who, as half of the team of Klaw and Erlanger, produced dozens of Broadway shows during the first three decades of the 20th century, including…
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AM 
