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Playbill Vault’s Today in Theatre History: July 20

by | Jul 19, 2021 | New Musical News Feed

1961 Stop The World—I Want To Get Off opens at the Queen’s Theatre in London’s West End. The musical, which features a book, music, and lyrics by Leslie Bricusse and its star, Anthony Newley, follows the life of one man from birth to death. It runs 485 performances. A Broadway production opens at the Shubert Theatre on October 3, 1962, where it runs for 555 performances.

1987 Charles Busch‘s sendup of beach movies, Psycho Beach Party, opens Off-Broadway at the Players Theatre. Busch himself is among the cast of the lampoon directed by Kenneth Elliott. It rides the waves for 344 performances and closes May 15 the following year.

2000 The high-altitude comedy The Man in the Flying Lawn Chair officially opens at Off-Off-Broadway’s 78th Street Theatre Lab, conceived and directed by Artistic Director Eric Nightengale. The piece follows the life of Larry Walters, who, with the help of 50 surplus weather balloons, launched himself to the height of 16,000 feet in an aluminum lawn chair.

2000 The world premiere production of They All Laughed! opens at Goodspeed in Connecticut. Marla Schaffel and James Ludwig star in the show, which draws its score from the Gershwin 1926 Broadway musical Oh, Kay! and other Gershwin properties, with a libretto by Joe DiPietro. The show would go on to be revised and open on Broadway as Nice Work If You Can Get It in 2012.

2005 Mary Stuart opens in London at the Donmar Warehouse, starring Janet McTeer and Harriet Walter. Featuring a new translation by Peter Oswald, the Friedrich Schiller play stars McTeer in the title role opposite Walter as Queen Elizabeth I. The production transferred to the West End in 2006 and eventually opened on Broadway in 2009, earning seven Tony Award nominations, including Best Revival of a Play.

2007 The movie musical adaptation of Hairspray, directed and choreographed by Adam Shankman, opens in cinemas across America. It features newcomer Nikki Blonsky as Tracy Turnblad alongside a star-studded cast including John Travolta, Michelle Pfeiffer, Queen Latifah, and Zac Efron. The film is based on the 2002 Broadway Tony-winning musical with a score by Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman, which itself is adapted from John Waters’ 1988 film.

2008 A five-person ensemble staging of Jules Verne’s Around the World in 80 Days opens at the Irish Repertory Theatre. The quintet play over 35 different characters in the adventurous tale.

2011 Barrington Stage Company presents the world premiere of Mormons, Mothers and Monsters, a new musical with a book and lyrics by Sam Salmond and music by Will Aronson. Directed by Adrienne Campbell-Holt, the cast features Stanley Bahorek, Jill Abramovitz, and Adam Monley.

2016 The Globe Theatre of London’s acclaimed 2015 production of The Merchant of Venice, starring Tony Award winner Jonathan Pryce, begins New York performances at the Rose Theater as part of the Lincoln Center Festival. Jonathan Munby directs the production on a set that recreates the Globe stage.

Today’s Birthdays: Pavel Kohout (b. 1928), Sally Ann Howes (b. 1930), Diana Rigg (b. 1938), Michael Park (b. 1968), Sandra Oh (b. 1971).

Watch highlights from The Merchant of Venice, starring Jonthan Pryce:

Celebrate Diahann Carroll With a Look Back at No Strings on Broadway

by | Jul 16, 2021 | New Musical News Feed

Stage and screen star Diahann Carroll was born July 17, 1935.

She made her Broadway debut in 1954 in House of Flowers, appearing opposite Pearl Bailey and Alvin Ailey. That year also marked her film debut, playing Myrt in Carmen Jones; five years later, she’d return to the big screen for another movie musical: Porgy and Bess (playing Clara, though her singing was dubbed). Carroll made history in 1962, becoming the first black woman to win the Best Actress in a Musical Tony Award for her performance in No Strings.

In the musical, a successful high-fashion model from Harlem meets and falls in love with an American writer who has made Paris his home. Convinced that their love only needs one another to survive, they embark on a romantic adventure through Europe, clinging to the City of Lights as the harsh reality of America threatens their union. Featuring music and lyrics by Richard Rodgers and book by Samuel Taylor, the show was notable at the time for its casual depiction of an interracial romance.

Look Back at Diahann Carroll and Richard Kiley in No Strings on Broadway

No Strings opened on Broadway March 15, 1962. The production, directed and choreographed by Joe Layton, played 1 preview and 580 performances before closing August 3, 1963. It received nine Tony Award nominations, winning four, including a special Tony Award for Rodgers.

In addition to Carroll as Barbara Woodruff, the musical starred Richard Kiley as David Jordan, Noelle Adam as Jeanette Valmy, Don Chastain as Mike Robinson, Alvin Epstein as Luc Delbert, Mitchell Gregg as Louis dePourtal, Bernice Massi as Comfort O’Donnell, Polly Rowles as Mollie Plummer, and Paul Cambeilh as Marcello Agnolotti.

No Strings featured scenic design and lighting design by David Hayes and costume design by Fred Voelpel and Donald Brooks (with Brooks providing dresses for Carroll, Rowles, and Massi). Visit the Playbill Vault for the complete cast and creative team.

Following No Strings, Carroll would return to the stage in the 1982 production of Agnes of God, replacing Elizabeth Ashley, and opening the 1995 Canadian premiere of Sunset Boulevard as Norma Desmond.

How Many Broadway Modes of Transportation Can You Name?

by | Jul 16, 2021 | New Musical News Feed

“Where am I going?,” asks Charity Hope Valentine. In this quiz, though, it’s not where you’re going that’s important, but rather, how you get there.

Click through the gallery below and see how many Broadway cars, boats, and other modes of transportation you can recall using the character and lyric clues in the questions. (What?…no Miss Saigon helicopter? There, we said it for you.)

How Many Broadway Modes of Transportation Can You Name?

Look Back at Angels in America on Broadway in Honor of Tony Kushner

by | Jul 15, 2021 | New Musical News Feed

Tony Award winner Tony Kushner celebrates his birthday July 16.

Kushner is perhaps best known for his Pulitzer Prize-winning drama Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes. Millennium Approaches, the first part of the two-play epic, directed by George C. Wolfe, opened on Broadway at the Walter Kerr May 4, 1993. Starring Joe Mantello, Stpehen Spinella, and more, the drama was nominated for nine Tony Awards, winning four, including Best Play.

In fall 1993, Angels in America: Perestroika joined Millennium Approaches at the Walter Kerr, where the two halves played in repertory. After opening November 23, 1993, Perestroika would go on to earn six Tony Award nominations, winning three, including Best Play.

Set in 1980s New York City, Angels in America tells the stories of a gay man who is abandoned by his lover when he contracts the AIDS virus, and a closeted Mormon lawyer, whose marriage to his pill-popping wife stalls. Other characters include the infamous McCarthy-ite lawyer Roy Cohn, Ethel Rosenberg, a former drag queen who works as a nurse, and an angel.

Look Back at Angels In America on Broadway in Honor of Tony Kushner

The gay fantasia returned to Broadway 25 years later, opening at the Neil Simon Theatre March 25, 2018, in a Marianne Elliott helmed-production. The revival, starring Andrew Garfield, Nathan Lane, Lee Pace, and more, earned 11 Tony Award nominations, winning three, including Best Revival.

To learn more about the productions, visit PlaybillVault.com/AngelsinAmerica1993 and PlaybillVault.com/AngelsinAmerica2018.