1985 Alan Ayckbourn's Season's Greetings, a comedy about a family's reunion for a traditional English Christmas, opens Off-Broadway at the Joyce Theatre. The American Theatre Exchange production is helmed by Pat Brown. The play ran previously in London and then made its American premiere at the Alley Theatre in Houston, Texas before making its way to New York.
1998 After playing 12 previews and 240 regular performances in William Luce's Broadway bio of John Barrymore at the Music Box Theatre, actor Christopher Plummer kicks off an eight-city tour of Barrymore. The Broadway production closed November 2, 1997, but Plummer took some time off to rest from the role which won him the 1997 Best Actor Tony Award, as well as a Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Award.
2002 Comedian Robin Williams hones a new standup act in Robin Williams: Live on Broadway, which plays a 3-performance limited run at the Broadway Theatre.
2012 Heads turn at the Geffen Playhouse as John Pielmeier's adaptation of William Peter Blatty's horror novel The Exorcist opens in Los Angeles. John Doyle stages the production, which stars Brooke Shields as the mother of a girl possessed by the devil, and Richard Chamberlain as the priest called in to perform the exorcism.
2016 The world premiere of J.T. Rogers’ Oslo, a political thriller about the secret talks that led to the 1993 peace agreement between Israel and the PLO, opens Off-Broadway at Lincoln Center Theater's Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater. Bartlett Sher directs a cast led by Jennifer Ehle and Jefferson Mays. The production transfers to Broadway the following year, and wins Tony Awards for Best Play and Featured Actor in a Play (Michael Aronov).
More of Today's Birthdays: Georgiana Drew Barrymore (1856-1893). Bruce MacFarlane (1905-1967). Yul Brynner (1920-1985). Tab Hunter (1931-2018). David Ives (b. 1950). Stephen Lang (b. 1952). Kim Crosby (b. 1960). Sydney Lucas (b. 2003).
