
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 2015, hamilton opens Off-Broadway at the Public Theater. 1902 Joseph Hart’s Popular Musical foxy…
1904 Set designer and costume designer Oliver Messel was born in London.1911 Ethel Barrymore given…
1900 The scandalous Sappho is staged at Wallack’s Theater in New York. Based on the…
In 2010, Liev Schreiber and Scarlett Johansson play in Arthur Miller A view from the…
1904 Maude Adams returns to Broadway with a JM Barrie cover The little minister. He…
1893 dancer birthday Ann Pennington, who flaunts her legendary dimpled knee in numerous editions of…
1888 One of Frances Hodgson Burnett’s greatest hits opens: Little Lord Fauntleroy, with Tommy Russell.…
1907 Theater producer Herman Levin was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.1924 Fred and Adele Astaire star…
1924 Henry Oscar and Esme Biddle are the protagonists of Byron by Alice Law, at…
1895 Birthday of legendary film choreographer Busby Berkeley, whose career was launched by an explosion…
1906 Anna Held is The Parisian model who inherits money mysteriously. Harry B. Smith provides…
1864 Edwin Booth opens a four month booth at Hamlet at the old Winter Garden…
1906 George Arliss and Mrs. Fiske star in The New York idea, the play by…
1900 Opening night of the legendary musical Floradora at the Casino Theater for a series…
1854 Birthday party of John Philip Sousa, composer of countless marches, who also found time…
Scene from the American Negro Theater’s Broadway production of “Anna Lucasta”, starring (left to right)…
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…
1903 Birthday party for Jerome Lester Horwitz, better known by his stage name Curly Howard,…
1893 Arthur Wing Pinero woos scandal with his play The second Mrs. Tanqueray, about a…
1919 Hitchy-Koo 1919 turns out to be a minor hit for star Raymond Hitchcock, but…
1904 Julian Eltinge, the famous female impersonator, makes her Broadway debut in Mr. Wix from…
1914 A prank on the sale of soap called It pays to advertise, by King…
1897 John Drew and Billie Burke (in her Broadway debut) star in the new play,…
1922 Theoni V. Aldredge, one of the leading Broadway costume designers of the late 20th…
1923 The game Red light Annie opens at the Morosco Theater (which closed in 1981…
1885 London’s hit operetta The Mikado, by WS Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan, premiered on Broadway…
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…
1975 Liza Minnelli to the rescue! With just six days to learn the role of…
1921 Opening night of the popular farce Obtain Gertie’s Garter about a man who gives…
1920 Two of Broadway’s greatest songwriter talents debut on Main Stem: lyricist Lorenz Hart, 25,…
1853 Birthday of Broadway impresario David Belasco, namesake of Belasco Theater, who wrote and /…
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…
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,…
1924 Birthday of Sheldon Harnick, who writes lyrics for musicals including Fiorello !, She loves…
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 woman who doesn’t have…
1926 Sex. It is a comedy. Mae West plays a Canadian who doesn’t have time…
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…
1856 Comedian Eddie Foy was born. He plays in vaudeville and on Broadway, notably in…
1920 Ziegfeld girls from 1920 enjoys a run at the New Amsterdam Roof Theatre. This…
1920 Ziegfeld Girls of 1920 enjoys a run at the New Amsterdam Roof Theater. This…
1900 Composer Kurt Weill was born in Dessau, Germany. He composed the scores of Bertolt…
Theater would not be theater without the efforts of black artists, and it is important…
1812 Author’s birthday Charles Dickens, whose A Christmas Carol has been adapted for the stage…
1903 Dorothy, the Scarecrow, the Tin Man and the Cowardly Lion are seen on Broadway…
1903 Daniel Frohman opens the New Lyceum Theater on West 45th Street in Manhattan with…
1925 Birthday of actor Paul Newman, who plays on Broadway in Picnic, the sweet bird…
1892 Songwriter and producer Earl Carroll was born. His best remembered contribution to theater is…
1943 George Marion, Jr. and Thomas “Fats” Waller’s Goes to bed early opens on Broadway…
1907 The writer and playwright Daphné du Maurier was born from the actors Gérald and…
1858 Birthday of DeWolf Hopper, vaudeville comedian and musical star, who appeared in Wang, Hoity-Toity,…
1820 Birthday of Louisa Lane Drew, matriarch of the Drew and Barrymore acting dynasty which…
1901 Sadie Martinot, Guy Bates Post and Junius Brutus Booth play The marriage game. The…
1897 John Drew and Billie Burke (in her Broadway debut) star in the new play,…
1903 In runaways, with a book by Addison Burkhardt and a score by Raymond Hubbell,…
1904 Maude Adams returns to Broadway with a revival of JM Barrie The little minister.…
1882 Birth of the French playwright Jean Giraudoux, author of La Folle de Chaillot, Ondine,…
1931 Playwright and producer David Belasco dies in New York. He began his theatrical life…
1923 Sweet Nell of old Drury opens at the 48th Street Theater in New York.…
In 1966, Gwen Verdon plays in Sweet Charityopening at the Palace Theater on Broadway. 1860…
1849 Birthday of writer Frances Hodgson Burnett, author of several Broadway plays in the early…
1929 Highlights of A night in Venice include Ted Healy’s wrestling bears and Busby Berkeley’s…
1899 Happy birthday Edward Kennedy Ellington, who, taking the surname “Duke”, becomes one of the…
1900 Cho-Cho San and her passionate and tragic love illuminate David Belasco’s adaptation of John…
1903 Cartoonist Al Hirschfeld was born in St. Louis, Missouri. His distinctive looping line drawings…
1943 George Marion, Jr. and Thomas “Fats” Waller’s Goes to bed early opens on Broadway…
1905 Theater producer Sam S. Shubert dies in a train accident. His brothers Lee and…
1887 Anniversary of legendary director George Abbott, whose long life (107 years) and colossal catalog…