| Acting Schools
home > Acting Schools News
Center > Today In Theatre History
Today In Theatre History
By Robert Viagas
and Ernio Hernandez and anne Bradley
15 Feb 2006
1905 Birthday of composer Harold Arlen (1905-1986) a cantor's son
who cut his musical teeth in 1920s Harlem, and went on to write
music for Broadway shows, Star and Garter. Jamaica, House of Flowers
and Saratoga as well as for the MGM film musical The Wizard of Oz.
1923 Gerald du Maurier and Tallulah Bankhead are featured in The
Dancers at Wyndham's Theatre in London. Hubert Parson penned this
romance of a dancehall proprietor who inherits a title and fortune
but never forgets his true love. It surefoots it for 346 performances.
1933 One Sunday Afternoon stars Lloyd Nolan and Francesca Bruning
as plain people struggling through hard times. James Hagan's drama
will run at the Little Theatre in New York for 143 performances.
1939 Lillian Hellman forages the old South and comes up with The
Little Foxes.Tallulah Bankhead leads the cast in this drama that
will run for 410 performances at the National Theatre in New York.
1950 Before TV's "Hazel" typecast her as a frumpy maid,
Shirley Booth won a Tony for starring in William Inge's drama, Come
Back, Little Sheba. Co-star Sidney Blackmer would also take home
a Tony for this Theatre Guild production. Best Play, however, went
to T.S. Eliot's The Cocktail Party.
1984 Stage legend Ethel Merman, Broadway's original Mama Rose in
Gypsy dies in her hometown New York City at 76. The actress' other
memorable works include Anything Goes, Red, Hot and Blue!, Something
for the Boys, Call Me Madam and Annie Get Your Gun.
1998 Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS presents its first annual
"Broadway Bears" event. The fundraiser auctions off little
stuffed bears designed to look like famous performers in theatre
roles. Among the first ursines are a Funny Girl Streisand bear,
a Once Upon A Mattress Carol Burnett bear, a Ben Vereen Pippin bear
and a Julie Andrews Victor/Victoria bear.
More of Today's Birthdays: Walter Donaldson 1893. Cesar Romero
1907. Kevin McCarthy 1914. Keene Curtis 1923. Claire Boom 1931.
Jane Seymour 1951.
http://www.playbill.com/news/article/67795.html
|
