1899 Happy birthday Edward Kennedy Ellington, who, taking the surname “Duke,” becomes one of the 20th century’s most important musician-composers. He writes the scores for the Broadway musicals Beggar’s Holiday and Pousse-Cafe, and his songs are later used in the hit revue Sophisticated Ladies, and the Twelfth Night-inspired musical Play On!
1919 Celeste Holm is born in New York City. She never says no as Ado Annie in the original 1943 production of Oklahoma! and acts in films as everybody’s witty and wise best friend.
1940 Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne head the cast in Robert E. Sherwood‘s There Shall Be No Night. The drama describes the courage of the Finns recently overrun by Russian invaders. It plays 181 performances at the Alvin Theatre on Broadway, and wins the Pulitzer Prize.
1966 Paula Strasberg, an early member of the Actors Studio (with husband Lee) and a drama coach, dies at age 55.
1968 This is the dawning of the “Age of Aquarius” when Hair opens on Broadway at the Biltmore Theatre. James Rado and Gerome Ragni wrote the book and lyrics for the Galt MacDermot musical. The production runs four years, for a total of 1,750 performances.
1992 William Finn and James Lapine combine March of the Falsettos and Falsettoland into one musical, which they call Falsettos. Opening on Broadway at the John Golden Theatre, it stars Stephen Bogardus as Whizzer, Michael Rupert as Marvin, and Chip Zien as Mendel. Finn wins the Tony Award for Best Score, and Finn and Lapine win for Best Book. It runs 486 performances.
1996 It’s “No Day But Today” for the cast of the Broadway sensation Rent, opening at the Nederlander Theatre. Michael Greif directs the musical that makes names for such actors as Anthony Rapp, Adam Pascal, Daphne Rubin-Vega, Taye Diggs, and Idina Menzel. Written by Jonathan Larson, the show plays 5,123 performances on Broadway, and wins many awards including the Tony Award for Best Musical and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Larson sadly never saw any of the success that his musical brought, having died in January 1996 of an aortic aneurysm.
1997 Leonard Bernstein‘s musical Candide is revived on Broadway by director Harold Prince. The show, based on the 1759 novel Candide by Voltaire, features Jim Dale, Andrea Martin, and Harolyn Blackwell. Unlike Prince’s long-running 1974 Broadway revival, this production runs only 104 performances.
2001 Two-time Pulitzer winner August Wilson continues his epic chronicle of 20th century African-American life when King Hedley II opens on Broadway. Two Tony-winning musical comedy stars take on dramatic roles in the play: Brian Stokes Mitchell and Leslie Uggams.
2002 Broadway and TV comedian Carol Burnett makes her debut as a playwright when Hollywood Arms, co-written with her daughter Carrie Hamilton, opens at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago. It transfers to Broadway in October 2002.
2006 Rent celebrates its 10th anniversary on Broadway with a reunion event at the Nederlander Theatre.
2009 The first Broadway revival of Samson Raphaelson‘s 1934 romantic comedy Accent on Youth opens at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre. David Hyde Pierce portrays a playwright who finds fresh inspiration in a pretty young secretary in the Manhattan Theatre Club production, directed by Daniel Sullivan.
Flip through photos from Rent on Broadway:
Rent on Broadway
