Author Vicki P. Rowland

Come From Away officially becomes the longest-running show in the 105-year history of the Gerald…

1922 Theoni V. Aldredge, one of the leading Broadway costume designers of the late 20th…

1897 John Drew and Billie Burke (in her Broadway debut) star in the new play,…

1929 Highlights of A night in Venice include Ted Healy’s wrestling bears and Busby Berkeley’s…

1859 Sholem Yakov Rabinowitz was born in Ukraine. Under the pseudonym of Sholem Aleichem, he…

Program for the opening of the Orpheum Theater in San Francisco. (Photo courtesy of Jack…

1873 Birthday of an influential director Max Reinhardt in Austria-Hungary. It stages innovative productions of…

Blong. It’s a hair color that conjures up images of beauty, privilege, thoughtlessness. Throughout history,…

10 years of musical theater history! Feinstein/54 Below 10th Anniversary Celebration Since opening its…

The original New York Theater Strategy production of “Fefu and Her Friends” at the Relativity…

1915 The immense Théâtre de l’Hippodrome opens one of its most successful shows, Hip! Hip!…

1903 Cartoonist Al Hirschfeld was born in St. Louis, Missouri. His distinctive looping line drawings…

1905 Birthday of the lyricist and librettist Dorothy Fields, daughter of a vaudeville star Lew…

I have extensively covered Stephen Sondheim’s work on this site (see here, here and here).…

1859 Birthday of the King of Broadway Operetta Victor Herbert, composer of Babes in Toyland,…

1893 Birthday of the playwright and producer Russel Crouse, whose prodigious output of scripts -…

1961 American ideals and practices are put to the test The red eye of love…

1895 Birthday of Oscar Hammerstein II, scion of a notable theatrical family who became its…

1905 Theater producer Sam S. Shubert dies in a train accident. His brothers Lee and…

1904 The southerners, with a score by black composer Will Marion Cook, is the first…

1895 Birthday of the legendary film choreographer Busby Berkeley, whose career was launched by an…

1915 Among the dead after the sinking of the Lusitania were director-producer Charles Frohman and…

1924 Birthday of Sheldon Harnick, who writes lyrics for musicals, including Fiorello!, She loves me,…

1904 Set designer and costume designer Oliver Messel was born in London.1911 Ethel Barrymore given…

1921 Popular farce opening night Get Gertie’s Garter about a man who gives a young…

1914 Mrs. Patrick Campbell and Herbert Beerbohm Tree are the very first Eliza Doolittle and…

1903 by Victor Herbert Girls in Toyland opens on Broadway, featuring the songs “I Can’t…

1907 In The Comet, Alla Nazimova plays a woman who falls in love with her…

1918 Jerome Robbins was born. The choreographer spent most of his early career moving easily…

1919 After 30 days, 37 productions closed and 16 openings prevented, the actors’ equity strike…

1878 Birthday of Sam S. Shubert, co-founder of the titan owner and theater producer Shubert…

1887 Anniversary of legendary director George Abbott, whose long life (107 years) and colossal catalog…

1914 A prank on the sale of soap called It pays to advertise, by Roi…

1879 The composer Rudolf Friml was born in Prague. He emigrated to the United States…

1904 Julian Eltinge, the famous impersonator, makes his Broadway debut in Mr. Wix of Wickham,…

1900 Opening night of the legendary musical Floradora at the Casino Theater for a run…

1854 Birthday of John Philip Sousa, composer of countless marches, who also found time to…

1920 At Brock Pemberton Miss Lulu Bett opens at the Belmont Theatre. It organized 198…

1909 Director Birth of Elia Kazan. On Broadway, he directs the original productions of A…

1818 The playwright and novelist Ivan Turgenev was born in Russia. His most notable piece…

1900 Blanche Bates, who will play Cho-Cho San in Lady Butterflystars of David Belasco Naughty…

1912 by Richard Le Gallienne Orestes stars Edyth Olive and Rathmel Wilson. He plays at…

1836 Birthday of satirist William S. Gilbert, who would later attain immortality as lyricist for…

1882 Birthday of John Barrymore, actor in the grand style and descendant of the Barrymore…

1899 “I’d rather play Ibsen than eat – and that’s often what it comes down…

1730 Birthday of Oliver Goldsmith, British author of She bends to conquer. 1900 One of…

1920 Two of Broadway’s greatest songwriting talents make their Main Stem debut: lyricist Lorenz Hart,…

1925 Godfrey Tearle plays the lead role in Hamlet in the Fellowship Players production at…

1907 Writer-playwright Daphné du Maurier was born to actors Gérald and Muriel du Maurier. Daphne…

1895 Birthday of Charles MacArthur, journalist-turned-playwright, whose insightful work includes The first page, 20th century…

1882 Birth of the French playwright Jean Giraudoux, author of La Folle de Chaillot, Ondine,…

1943 George Marion, Jr. and Thomas “Fats” Waller’s Goes to bed early opens on Broadway…

1882 Birthday of Bela Lugosi, Hungarian-born actor who played a variety of character roles before…

1860 Birthday of James M. Barrie, British author and playwright whose creations include What every…

1926 Sex. It is a comedy. Mae West plays a Canadian woman who doesn’t have…

1896 Birthday of Ira Gershwin, one of Broadway’s most brilliant lyricists, working mostly with his…

1879 World premiere of WS Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan The Penzance Pirates at the Fifth…

1914 The Ziegfeld follies of 1914 stars Ed Wynn. Leon Errol dances and co-directs with…

1898 Birthday of one of Broadway’s most endearing performers of the 1920s, Marilyn Miller, whose…

1903 In runaways, with a book by Addison Burkhardt and a score by Raymond Hubbell,…

1921 Composer Birth of Richard Adler. Alongside Jerry Ross, he wrote two of the most…

Playbill Vault Playbill Vault’s Today in Theater History: February 22 In 2018, Bernadette Peters took…

1919 Guy Bolton and PG Wodehouse call it Time to fuck at the Winter Garden…

A program and seating plan for the first Tony Awards. (Photo by Worth Point). Southwark…