1859 Eleanora Duse is born in Italy. One of the leading actors of her day, "The Great Duse" champions the realistic playwrights of the early 20th century, and has some of her greatest successes in the works of Henrik Ibsen, notably Ghosts.
1898 Edmond Rostand's Cyrano de Bergerac has its Broadway debut at the Garden Theatre, starring Richard Mansfield in the title role.
1910 Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm opens on Broadway, setting a standard for saccharine family fare. It runs 216 performances.
1938 In one of her most acclaimed performances, Helen Hayes plays Britain's Queen Victoria in Victoria Regina at the Martin Beck Theatre.
1961 Elaine Stritch stars as cruise director Mimi Paragon in Noël Coward's musical Sail Away, opening at the Broadhurst Theatre. Stritch stops the show with her 11 o'clock number "Why Do The Wrong People Travel?"
1962 Anthony Newley stars in the Broadway debut of his musical Stop the World – I Want to Get Off at the Shubert Theatre. The allegorical show about an Everyman was written by Newley and Leslie Bricusse, with Anna Quayle co-starring. The song "What Kind of Fool Am I?" becomes a hit, and producer David Merrick proves himself no fool in his PR tactics. When faced with a mediocre New York Times review of World, he translates the critique into Greek and runs it in the show's print ads. A film version of Stop is released in 1966.
1966 Here's Love, Meredith Willson's musical adaptation of Miracle on 34th Street, opens on Broadway at the Shubert Theatre. Laurence Naismith plays Mr. Kris Kringle, opposite Janis Paige, Craig Stevens, and Fred Gwynne. Appearing in the chorus are young dancers Michael Bennett and Baayork Lee.
1967 The Birthday Party by Harold Pinter opens at the Booth Theatre. The absurdist play features Henderson Forsythe, Ed Flanders, Alexandra Berlin, Ruth White, and James Patterson (who wins a Tony for his performance) in a cast directed by Alan Schneider. Variety reports the basic story line as being about "a psychoneurotic rooming with a moronic couple." It is actually about a couple, Meg and Petey, who lodge an insecure and untidy man, Stanley. The chaos occurs when two menacing "friends" show up to help Stanley celebrate his birthday. Birthday parties on for almost four months.
1978 Henry Fonda makes his last Broadway appearance playing a Supreme Court Justice in Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee's drama, First Monday in October. The play is about the first female Supreme Court Justice, played by Jane Alexander.
1995 Tommy Tune breaks his foot for the second time in two years and is left with no choice but to only sing and act his part in Busker Alley, which begins its tryout at the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center. Two other people dance for him in the show, but that doesn't work. Instead, the Broadway opening for November 16 is called off. The production was plagued with bad reviews from the start, and the $6 million debt left over from the broken foot and opening cancellation is not covered by Tune's insurance, which is only $3.5 million.
1996 Off-Broadway's St. Luke's Church becomes an apropos venue for Vicki Quade and Maripat Donovan's Late Night Catechism. The interactive comedy features Donovan as a nun lecturing audiences on Catholicism. The show inhabits the theatre for years to come.
1999 Eve Ensler opens The Vagina Monologues Off-Broadway at the Westside Theatre. In the solo show, the playwright-performer reveals a series of different women's stories and experiences involving their genitalia. Joe Mantello serves as production supervisor for the play, which later becomes a three-person show, featuring a long series of female celebrities, following the author's departure.
2004 William Gibson's play Golda's Balcony becomes the longest-running one-woman show in Broadway history. The stage portrait of Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meier surpasses the previous record-holder, Lily Tomlin's The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe.
2010 Mrs. Warren's Profession, the 1894 George Bernard Shaw play so shocking that it wasn't performed in London until 1902—and then only in a private presentation—opens in a new Broadway production at the American Airlines Theatre. Directed by Doug Hughes, the play stars Cherry Jones as Kitty Warren, and Sally Hawkins as her daughter Vivie.
More of Today's Birthdays: Warner Oland (1879-1938). Henry Hull (1890-1977). Gertrude Berg (1899-1966). Johnny Burke (1908-1964). Ray Stark (1915-2004). Gore Vidal (1925-2012). Peter Frechette (b. 1956). Jake Shears (b. 1978). Carlo Albán (b. 1979). Ashlee Simpson (b. 1984). Derek Klena (b. 1991).
