VIDEO: On This Day, March 2- SMOKEY JOE’S CAFE Opens On Broadway
On this day in 1995, the Leiber and Stoller musical revue Smokey Joe’s Cafe opened on Broadway
Playbill Vault’s Today in Theatre History: March 2
1900 Composer Kurt Weill is born in Dessau, Germany. He composes the scores for Bertolt Brecht‘s Threepenny Opera and Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny. His greatest Broadway success is the 1941 musical Lady in the Dark, written with Moss Hart and Ira Gershwin, which runs 467 performances.
1921 The Klaw Theatre on West 45th Street opens with a production of Rachel Crothers‘ Nice People. Owned by theatrical producer Marc Klaw, the house is renamed the Avon in 1929. Columbia Broadcasting System takes it over for its radio studio in 1934. The theatre is demolished in 1954.
1955 Harold Clurman directs Bus Stop. Kim Stanley and Elaine Stritch are two of the stranded passengers in the William Inge play.
1960 Don Ameche stars in the memorable flop 13 Daughters, with book, music, and lyrics by Eaton Magoon, Jr. The show runs 28 performances at the 54th Street Theatre.
1975 Did anyone guess the careers Gilda Radner, John Belushi, and Bill Murray would have? All three appear in The National Lampoon Show at the Palladium in New York. The revue, directed by Martin Charnin, runs 23 weeks.
1989 Ken Ludwig‘s Lend Me a Tenor, starring Victor Garber, Philip Bosco, and Tovah Feldshuh, opens on Broadway at the Royale Theatre. Bosco and director Jerry Zaks win Tony Awards for their work.
1995 Opening night for Smokey Joe’s Cafe, the musical revue saluting the songs of Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller. Directed by Jerry Zaks, the show runs 2,036 performances at the Virginia Theatre, making it the longest-running revue in Broadway history, save Oh! Calcutta!
2000 Susan Stroman and John Weidman‘s dance play Contact starts performances at the Vivian Beaumont Theater. The show, which sold out its Off-Broadway run at the Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater, gains Broadway status (and Tony eligibility) in the move. It officially opens March 30, and wins the Tony Award for Best Musical, despite using an entirely pre-recorded score of jazz music and pop tunes.
2014 The New York premiere of Sarah Ruhl‘s romantic comedy Stage Kiss opens Off-Broadway at Playwrights Horizons. Jessica Hecht and Dominic Fumusa star as actors in a forgotten 1930s melodrama who quickly lose touch with reality as their onstage story follows them offstage.
2017 Joshua Harman‘s Significant Other opens on Broadway at the Booth Theatre, following a successful Off-Broadway run. Gideon Glick stars as a gay, single 20-something New Yorker whose bond with his once-inseparable group of friends begins to fracture as the women in his life get married. The production runs 61 performances.
2020 Company returns to Broadway (with a twist) as a new revival of the Stephen Sondheim and George Furth musical begins previews at the Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre. Marianne Elliott’s gender-reversed production was officially scheduled to open March 22—Sondheim’s 90th’ birthday—but is currently on hiatus due to the ongoing pandemic. Two Tony winners headline the staging: Katrina Lenk (The Band’s Visit) as Bobbie (a new take on the musical’s central Bobby) and Patti LuPone (Evita, Gypsy) as Joanne.
2020 Diana, the new musical about the late Princess of Wales, begins previews at Broadway’s Longacre Theatre March. The musical, scheduled to officially open March 31, is currently on hiatus due to the coronavirus pandemic. Jeanna de Waal (Kinky Boots) stars in the title role, alongside Roe Hartrampf as Prince Charles, Erin Davie (Side Show) as Camilla Parker Bowles, and two-time Tony winner Judy Kaye (Nice Work If You Can Get It) as Queen Elizabeth.
More of Today’s Birthdays: Marc Blitzstein (1905-1964). Martin Ritt (1914-1990). Desi Arnaz (1917-1986). Eddie Lawrence (1919-2014). Lilo (b. 1925). John Cullum (b. 1930). Daniel Craig (b. 1968).
Watch Anika Noni Rose and Raúl Esparza rehearse for a 2013 production of Marc Blitzstein’s musical The Cradle Will Rock:
VIDEO: Brian Stokes Mitchell Visits Backstage LIVE with Richard Ridge- Watch Now!
Watch as Richard chats with the incomparable Brian Stokes Mitchellwho will soon join Seth Rudetsky for two very special concerts on Sunday, February 283pm and 8pm.
Playbill Vault’s Today in Theatre History: February 28
1894 Birthday of playwright Ben Hecht, author or co-author of The Front Page, Twentieth Century, Jumbo, The Egoist, and The Great Magoo.
1915 Birthday of comedian Zero Mostel, who originates the roles of Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof, Pseudolus in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, and Max Bialystock in the original movie version of The Producers.
1916 Novelist Henry James dies in London at age 73. Several of his novels become the basis for plays. Washington Square, which comes to life as The Heiress, is the most successful.
1939 That’s tap dancing you hear. Dancer-choreographer-director Tommy Tune is born. He performs in shows such as Seesaw and My One and Only, and directs and choreographs Nine, Grand Hotel, and The Will Rogers Follies.
1955 Ben Bagley‘s Shoestring Revue has a big name cast. Chita Rivera, Bea Arthur, and Arte Johnson head the cast at the President Theatre in New York.
1959 Playwright Maxwell Anderson dies in Stamford, Connecticut. Among his many plays are Elizabeth the Queen, Mary of Scotland, Anne of the Thousand Days, and The Bad Seed. He was 71 years old.
1979 Ernest Thompson‘s late-in-life drama On Golden Pond, which premiered Off-Broadway on September 13, 1978 at the Hudson Guild Theatre, transfers to Broadway. The play, starring Tom Aldredge and Frances Sternhagen, runs 126 performances at the New Apollo Theatre. The play returns to Broadway three months after closing at the New Apollo, and runs for an additional 252 performances at the smaller Century Theatre.
1988 Robert Prosky and Sam Waterston play Russian and American negotiators trying to pull the world back from nuclear confrontation in Lee Blessing‘s Pulitzer finalist A Walk in the Woods, which opens at the Booth Theatre, beginning a 137-performance run.
1999 The Jason Robert Brown–Alfred Uhry–Harold Prince musical Parade, which opened at Lincoln Center’s Vivian Beaumont Theater on December 17, 1998, closes after 85 performances. Brent Carver and Carolee Carmello starred in the show, based on the real-life Leo Frank case and tragic events that followed.
2002 Off-Broadway opening for Eve Ensler‘s drama Necessary Targets, about sexual violence against women during the early 1990s war in Yugoslavia.
2005 Jilline Ringle, a Barrymore Award-nominated actor-singer who was a bright spot in theatres and cabarets in Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and Cape May, New Jersey, dies at age 40 after an illness.
2008 Passing Strange opens at the Belasco Theatre after a successful Off-Broadway run at The Public Theater. A young Black Californian who feels trapped by his suburban upbringing goes on a coming-of-age odyssey to Bohemian Amsterdam and Berlin in the musical narrated by the rock musician Stew, who co-composed the score with Heidi Rodewald. It runs 165 performances.
2013 Vanessa Redgrave and Jesse Eisenberg star in the Rattlestick Playwrights Theater world premiere of The Revisionist at the Cherry Lane Theatre. Written by Eisenberg, the play is about an antsy young novelist seeking refuge at a distant relative’s flat in Poland.
2018 Harvey Schmidt, who earned his shining spot in theatre history as composer of the world’s longest-running musical, The Fantasticks, dies at age 88. Along with lyricist Tom Jones, he also wrote the scores for 110 in the Shade, I Do! I Do!, and Celebration.
2019 The world premiere of John Logan and Tom Kitt‘s Superhero opens Off-Broadway at Second Stage Theater. Kate Baldwin, Kyle McArthur, and Bryce Pinkham star in the musical about a widowed mother, her comic book-loving son, and the mysterious stranger who lives in their building.
More of Today’s Birthdays: Marcel Pagnol (1895-1974). Molly Picon (1898-1992). Vincente Minnelli (1903-1986). Ketti Frings (1909-1981). Charles Durning (1923-2012). Gemze de Lappe (1922-2017). Tom Aldredge (1928-2011). Gavin MacLeod (b. 1931). Kelly Bishop (b. 1944). Mercedes Ruehl (b. 1948). Bernadette Peters (b. 1948). William Finn (b. 1952). Brent Barrett (b. 1957). John Turturro (b. 1957). Seth Rudetsky (b. 1967). Robert Sean Leonard (b. 1969).
Passing Strange Production Photos
VIDEO: On This Day, February 27- Happy Birthday, Josh Groban!
Groban made his Broadway debut in 2016 in Natasha, Pierre, and the Great Comet of 1812
Whoopi Goldberg, André De Shields, Tituss Burgess, More Star in Upon These Shoulders February 27
It’s time to celebrate Black artistry on stage and behind-the-scenes with Black Theatre Coalition’s streaming concert Upon These Shoulders, featuring Tony winners Whoopi Goldberg, André De Shields, George Faison, and more. The special airs February 27 at 8 PM ET via On the Stage.
As previously announced, the special is presented in partnership with Playbill. Click here for tickets.
The full lineup features Ahmad Simmons, Aisha Jackson, Amber Iman, Anastacia McCleskey, André De Shields, Ari Groover, Bebe Winans, Brandon A. McCall, Brandon Victor Dixon, Brittney Johnson, Bryonha Parham, Camille A. Brown, Carly Hughes, Charles Randolph-Wright, Christina Sajous, Daniel J. Watts, DJ Duggz, George Faison, Harry Lennix, Khaila Wilcoxon, Kimberly Marable, L. Steven Taylor, Lilli Cooper, Malcolm Armwood, Marisha Wallace, Mason Reeves, Mayor Lori Lightfoot (Mayor of Chicago), Mayor Muriel Bowser (Mayor of D.C.), Marlies Yearby, Merle Dandridge, Michael R. Jackson, Nathan Lee Graham, Nick Rashad Burroughs, Norm Lewis, Nteliseng Nkhela, Olivia Donaldson, Paul Tazewell, Phillip Boykin, Raja Feather Kelly, Savion Glover, Shereen Pimentel, Stephanie Umoh, Tamika Lawrence, TyNia Brandon, Tituss Burgess, Tracee Beazer Barrett, Tramaine Gray, Valisia LeKae, Whoopi Goldberg, and Wynton Marsalis.
Flip through the official digital Playbill for Upon These Shoulders:
This digital program was created using PLAYBILLder, Playbill’s custom, Broadway-quality program creation tool. Get started building your real—or fantasy—Playbill program today at PLAYBILLder.com.
Using performances, interviews, and video messages from Broadway stars and arts workers, the show will spotlight the history of Black artists’ creativity, magnify the work of today’s Black artists, and shed a light on the future of American theatre along with those who are going to lead the way. The concert will also highlight the work of the Black Theatre Coalition, emphasizing its leadership as the community moves the needle towards equity.
Proceeds from Upon These Shoulders will go directly to BTC’s Fellowship Initiative which will launch in the fall. 42 paid fellowships will be awarded in various categories of management, design, creative, casting, PR, and marketing.
The evening, produced in association with Jacquelyn Bell, will be directed by T. Oliver Reid and Warren Adams with a script by Jess Carson and music direction by Michael O. Mitchell. Daniel P. Calderon and #WorkFromHome provide additional video filming and production with sound mixing and editing from GSI Studios.
The Black Theatre Coalition team includes Reid, Adams, Reggie Van Lee, Aaliytha Stevens, Afton Battle, Tamica Clanton, and Anthony McDonald. BTC’s mission is to remove the illusion of inclusion in the American Theatre by building an ethical and sustainable roadmap that will increase employment opportunities for Black Theatre Professionals.
Upon These Shoulders is made possible thanks to title sponsor Cadillac and additional sponsorships by GEICO, City National Bank, American Express, and AARP.
A special American Express® Exclusive Package—which includes a ticket to the virtual concert and a pre-filmed virtual concert post-show event starting at 8:00pm(ET) with Tony Award Nominees Norm Lewis and Brandon Victor Dixon—is available exclusively for American Express Card Members.