
Playbill Vault’s Today in Theater History: March 19
1872 Birthday of singer and actress Anna Held, future wife of Florenz Ziegfeld, and classic…
1872 Birthday of singer and actress Anna Held, future wife of Florenz Ziegfeld, and classic…
In 1970, Purlie opens on Broadway with Melba Moore and Cleavon Little. 1926 at Sean…
In 1959, Lorraine Hansberry A raisin in the sun opens on Broadway. 1954 The golden…
In 2015, Helen Mirren starred in The audience on Broadway. 1920 Ziegfeld girls from 1920…
In 1992, Crazy of you opens on Broadway. 1900 Stages of Irish Literary Theater The…
1900 Birthday of the actor and singer Helen Morgan, who rose to fame as a…
In 2015, hamilton opens Off-Broadway at the Public Theater. 1902 Joseph Hart’s Popular Musical foxy…
In 1997, Whoopi Goldberg reprized the role of Pseudolus in A funny thing happened on…
1904 Set designer and costume designer Oliver Messel was born in London.1911 Ethel Barrymore given…
1889 Playwright and director George S. Kaufman was born in Pittsburgh. Former journalist, Kaufman makes…
1900 The scandalous Sappho is staged at Wallack’s Theater in New York. Based on the…
In 2006, winner of the Pulitzer Prize rabbit hole opens on Broadway. 1912 composer’s birthday…
1911 Hugh Herbert Hipple was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. After dropping two Hs, he becomes…
In 1979, the musical They play our song opens on Broadway. 1903 Broadway leader’s birthday…
1903 Mam’selle Napoleon is Anna Held in the musical at the Knickerbocker Theater. Produced by…
1896 Birthday of Ira Gershwin, one of Broadway’s brightest lyricists, mostly in collaboration with her…
1920 In Rollo’s wild oats, the main character rents a theater and hires actors to…
1694 Birthday of French writer François Marie Arouet, better known as Voltaire, whose satirical novel…
1922 The lucky is the brother who doesn’t get the girl in AA Milne’s play.…
1889 Playwright and director George S. Kaufman was born in Pittsburgh. Former journalist, Kaufman imposes…
1875 British operetta titans WS Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan make their US debut with Jury…
1874 Birthday of pioneering African-American artist-songwriter Bert Williams, who writes music for Broadway’s In Dahomey…
1900 Opening night of the legendary musical Floradora at the Casino Theater for a series…
1818 Playwright and novelist Ivan Turgenev was born in Russia. His most remarkable piece is…
1854 Birthday party of John Philip Sousa, composer of countless marches, who also found time…
1895 Birthday of Charles MacArthur, journalist turned playwright, whose Savoyard work includes Front page, 20th…
1916 A new play by a new playwright opens at the Provincetown Playhouse in Greenwich…
1903 Daniel Frohman opens the New Lyceum Theater on West 45th Street in Manhattan with…
1920 Opening night for Eugene O’Neill’s Emperor Jones, starring Charles S. Gilpin as a former…
1882 Birth of the French playwright Jean Giraudoux, author of The madwoman of Chaillot, Ondine,…
1920 birthday of Nanette Fabray, Broadway musical star High buttoned shoes, Love life (Tony Award),…
1920 birthday of Nanette Fabray, Broadway Musical Star High buttoned shoes, Love life (Tony Award),…
1844 Edward Harrigan, half of Harrigan and Hart’s iconic 1880s writing and performance team, was…
1844 Actress Sarah Bernhardt was born. “La Divine Sarah” creates many memorable roles in French…
1903 Birthday party for Jerome Lester Horwitz, better known by his stage name Curly Howard,…
1907 Top ‘o the world, a musical extravaganza, opens on Broadway for an impressive series…
1888 Operetta WS Gilbert & Arthur Sullivan Broadway Premiere The Yeomen of the Guard.1915 Arthur…
1730 Birthday of Oliver Goldsmith, British author of She bends over to conquer.1900 One of…
1893 Arthur Wing Pinero woos scandal with his play The second Mrs. Tanqueray, about a…
1857 Edward Franklin Albee is born, who, along with BF Keith, controls one of the…
1919 Hitchy-Koo 1919 turns out to be a minor hit for star Raymond Hitchcock, but…
1859 Eleanora Duse was born in Italy. One of the main actors of his time,…
1890 Julius Henry Marx was born in New York. Under the nickname “Groucho”, he and…
1921 The operetta Flowering time opens on Broadway. With around twenty themes by Franz Schubert…
1921 The Music Box Magazine of 1921 is the first production of the new Music…
1911 Disraeli opens on Broadway at the Wallack’s Theater. George Arliss plays the British Prime…
1879 Daly’s Theater opens on Broadway and Thirtieth Street in New York City.1894 Weapons and…
1910 Birthday of Lehman Engel, the Tony-winning Broadway conductor who founded the BMI Musical Theater…
1912 Jane Cowl becomes a star playing in In law by Bayard Veiller. The play…
1914 A prank on the sale of soap called It pays to advertise, by King…
1923 The game Red light Annie opens at the Morosco Theater (which closed in 1981…
1871 Birthday of playwright Jesse Lynch Williams. During the 1917-1918 theatrical season, Williams’ play, Why…
1879 The legendary Barrymore family has one more to add to their list with the…
1888 Comedian DeWolf Hopper begins his dramatic recitation of the poem Bat casey at the…
1895 Bert Lahr (née Irving Lahrheim), future stage and film clown, was born in New…
1924 Singer and vaudeville star Sophie tucker opens at the Palace.1924 Helene hayes opens in…
1967 Playwright Joe Orton is found dead in his London apartment. His companion, writer and…
1975 Liza Minnelli to the rescue! With just six days to learn the role of…
1947 Variety announces that John Garfield will star in the first production of a new…
1921 Composer Richard Adler was born. Alongside Jerry Ross, he wrote two of the most…
1900 Birthday of actress and singer Helen Morgan, who became famous as a nightclub artist.…
1921 Opening night of the popular farce Obtain Gertie’s Garter about a man who gives…
1853 Birthday of Broadway impresario David Belasco, namesake of Belasco Theater, who wrote and /…
1920 Producer Alexander H. Cohen, known for bringing quality plays to Broadway for six decades,…
1928 After the birth of talkies, Variety publishes an article focusing on the amount of…
1895 Birthday of Oscar Hammerstein II, descendant of a notable theater family who became their…
1887 Birthday of legendary director George Abbott, whose long life (107 years) and colossal catalog…
1903 Cartoonist Al Hirschfeld was born in St. Louis, Missouri. His distinctive looping line art…
1894 Birthday of Robert Russell Bennett, orchestrator of Broadway classics including the original Sunny, Show…
1909 Birthday of Broadway star Jessica Tandy, who has created many landmark roles including Blanche…
1946 Orson Welles takes the stage in Around the world, musical he adapted from Jules…
1924 The star of the Marx Brothers in I will say that she is at…
1905 Theater producer Sam S. Shubert dies in train crash. His brothers Lee and JJ…
1903 In Runaways, with a book by Addison Burkhardt and a score by Raymond Hubbell,…
1915 Among the dead after the sinking of the Lusitania were director-producer Charles Frohman and…
1887 Anniversary of Vernon Castle who, along with his wife and dance partner Irene Castle,…
1900 Cho-Cho San and his passionate and tragic love light up David Belasco’s adaptation of…
1926 Sex. It is a comedy. Mae West plays a Canadian who doesn’t have time…
1926 Sex. It is a comedy. Mae West plays a Canadian woman who doesn’t have…
1912 Karl Malden was born in Chicago, Illinois. He appears in numerous Broadway productions, most…
1912 Karl Malden was born in Chicago, Illinois. He appears in numerous Broadway productions, most…
1872 Birthday of singer and actress Anna Held, future wife of Florenz Ziegfeld, and the…
1927 Birthday of composer John Kander, who composes scores for Broadway Cabaret, Chicago, Kiss of…
1927 composer’s birthday John Kander, who composes scores for Broadway Cabaret, Chicago, Kiss of the…
1928 Birthday of playwright Edward Albee, who writes Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, The goat…
1925 Ernest Truex is The right guy for a group of drug dealers. The James…
1856 Comedian Eddie Foy was born. He plays in vaudeville and on Broadway, notably in…
1920 Ziegfeld Girls of 1920 enjoys a run at the New Amsterdam Roof Theater. This…
1920 Ziegfeld girls from 1920 enjoys a run at the New Amsterdam Roof Theatre. This…
1900 Composer Kurt Weill was born in Dessau, Germany. He composed the scores of Bertolt…
1859 Sholem Yakov Rabinowitz was born in Ukraine. Under the pseudonym Sholem Aleichem, he wrote…
1859 Sholem Yakov Rabinowitz was born in Ukraine. Under the pseudonym Sholem Aleichem, he wrote…
1901 A man hugs his fiancee Quiet because his parents want him to finish Yale.…
Happy birthday, Nathan Lane! 1938 A grandfather holds back death by chasing him into a…
1859 Birthday of King of Broadway Operetta Victor Herbert, composer of Babes in Toyland, The…
1859 Birthday of the King of Broadway Operetta Victor Herbert, composer of Babes in Toyland,…
1885 Birthday of Master Mechanic Jerome Kern, who writes sheet music for many Broadway shows,…
1878 Hungarian playwright Ferenc Molnar was born in Budapest. He writes The good fairy, the…
1903 Daniel Frohman opens the New Lyceum Theater on West 45th Street in Manhattan with…
1912 The firefly sets off the Théâtre Lyrique with music by Rudolf Friml and lyrics…