1856 Comedian Eddie Foy is born. He stars in vaudeville and on Broadway, notably in Mr. Hamlet of Broadway, The Earl and the Girl, and Piff! Paff!! Pouf!!! His son, Eddie Foy Jr., also stars on Broadway.
1922Eugene O’Neill‘s drama The Hairy Ape, the story of a stoker brutalized by his work, opens at the Provincetown Playhouse.
1961Dore Schary adapts and directs Morris West’s novel The Devil’s Advocate. Leo Genn stars in the drama that runs 116 performances at the Billy Rose Theatre.
1966 The English Stage Company is served 18 summonses as a result of William Gaskill’s production of Edward Bond‘s controversial play Saved. Lord Chamberlain had demanded certain changes be made; the company did not comply. Bond and the company are forced to pay costs.
1978Moliere in Spite of Himself plays at the Colonnades Theatre Lab in New York. The drama is adapted and staged by Michel Lessac and runs for 100 performances.
1978 Encompass Theatre, an Off-Off-Broadway group, launches a series of plays titled Hear Their Voices: Women Founders of the American Theatre, 1910-1945.
1986 At the New York Shakespeare Festival‘s production of Hamlet, Kevin Kline inhabits the “distracted globe” of the Bard’s immortal counterpart. The stageplay runs at Joseph Papp‘s Public Theater through May 11.
1989Wendy Wasserstein‘s The Heidi Chronicles opens at the Plymouth Theatre. The Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning drama stars Joan Allen and becomes something of a landmark in plays by and about modern American women.
2008 Following a 2007 Off-Broadway run at 37 Arts, In The Heights opens at the Richard Rodgers Theatre. Lin-Manuel Miranda co-wrote and stars in the show about life among the Latino residents of Manhattan’s Washington Heights neighborhood, along with Mandy Gonzalez, Karen Olivo, and Priscilla Lopez. The production wins four Tony Awards, including Best Musical.
200933 Variations, writer-director Moisés Kaufman‘s music-infused play that lured Jane Fonda back to Broadway after a 46-year absence, opens at the Eugene O’Neill Theatre.
2010Love Never Dies, Andrew Lloyd Webber‘s sequel to The Phantom of the Opera, opens at the West End’s Adelphi Theatre. Set at the Coney Island fairgrounds 10 years after The Phantom disappeared from the Paris Opera House, the musical stars Ramin Karimloo and Sierra Boggess as The Phantom and Christine.
2017Sally Field and Joe Mantello star in a revival of Tennessee Williams‘ The Glass Menagerie, opening at the Belasco Theatre. This is Field’s second time playing Southern matriarch Amanda Wingfield, having previously played the role in a 2004 production at the Kennedy Center.
Into the Woods: In Concert plays the Patchogue Theatre for the Performing Arts March 8 at 8 PM and March 9 at 2 PM and 8 PM. The Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine musical will be presented with limited staging, sets, and costumes; actors may perform with scripts in hand.
John McDaniel directs and conducts the three performances, which feature Tony winner Alice Ripley as the Witch, Tony nominee Melissa Errico as the Baker’s Wife, Tony nominee Constantine Maroulis as Cinderella’s Prince and the Wolf, Ali Ewoldt as Cinderella, Jim Stanek as The Baker, Alan Muraoka as the Narrator and Mysterious Man, Ayla Schwartz as Little Red Riding Hood, Tyler Jones as Jack, and Darren Ritchie as Rapunzel’s Prince.
Non-Equity cast members include Alexandra Imbrosci and Megan Gallagher as the Stepsisters, Julia Bain as Cinderella’s Stepmother, Jonathan Fluck as Cinderella’s Father, Amy Jane Finnerty as Jack’s Mother, James Schultz as the Steward, and Madison Wyatt as Rapunzel.
The cast will be backed by a 15-piece orchestra. Casting is by Stephen DeAngelis.
McDaniel was the music director and/or arranger for Broadway’s Bonnie and Clyde, Catch Me If You Can, Brooklyn, Taboo, Annie Get Your Gun, Patti LuPone in Concert, Grease, and Company. He has frequently collaborated with Rosie O’Donnell, including as a producer and composer as well as her bandleader for her Emmy-winning talk show.
Riverdale star Casey Cott will take on the title role in the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts’ upcoming presentation of The Who’s Tommy. As previously announced, the semi-staged production, directed and choreographed by Josh Rhodes, will run April 24–29 at the Washington, D.C. venue’s Eisenhower Theater as part of the 2018–2019 Broadway Center Stage series.
Joining Cott are Tony winner Christian Borle (Falsettos, Something Rotten!) and Mandy Gonzalez (Hamilton, In the Heights) as Captain Walker and Mrs Walker, with Wesley Taylor (SpongeBob SquarePants) as Cousin Kevin, Kimberly Nichole (The Voice) as the Gypsy (a.k.a. the Acid Queen), and Manu Narayan (My Fair Lady, Off-Broadway’s current Merrily We Roll Along) as Uncle Ernie.
Additional casting will be announced later.
This year marks the 50th anniversary of The Who’s original concept album for the rock opera, about a “deaf, dumb, and blind” boy who overcomes his disabilities with the help of ace pinball skills. The rock band’s Pete Townshend penned the score, as well as the book alongside Des McAnuff; the show also features additional music and lyrics by The Who’s John Entwistle and Keith Moon.
Lynne Shankel serves as musical director for the D.C. engagement. The production will also features sets and projections by Paul dePoo, costumes by Andrea Hood, lighting by Jake DeGroos, and sound design by Kai Harada.
