1919 After 30 days, 37 closed productions, and 16 prevented openings, the Actors' Equity strike is settled at 3 AM. The strike, which began on August 7, is the longest in American theatre history.
1979 A revival of the musical Peter Pan opens at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre, with Sandy Duncan as Peter and George Rose as Captain Hook. It runs 554 performances, more than three times as long as the original. Future years see more Pan revivals, starring Cathy Rigby.
1985 Andre Gregory, Arthur Rubin, Barbara Cook, George Hearn, Mandy Patinkin, Lee Remick, Jim Walton, Howard McGillin, Daisy Prince, Liz Callaway, Betty Comden, Adolph Green, Liliane Montevecchi, Elaine Stritch, Phyllis Newman, Carol Burnett, Licia Albanese, and Erie Mills convene upon the stage at Avery Fisher Hall to perform a concert version of Stephen Sondheim's Follies. Originally produced on Broadway in 1971, the musical later receives full Broadway revivals in 2001 and 2011.
2000 Ralph Fiennes, who played Hamlet on Broadway in 1995, returns to New York City in two other Shakespearean roles. The British actor alternates in the leads of the Almeida Theatre Company's productions of Richard II and Coriolanus at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. Jonathan Kent, who helmed Fiennes in Hamlet, takes on directorial duties again for the productions.
2012 Following a three-year hiatus, Gerard Alessandrini's Forbidden Broadway returns to New York with Forbidden Broadway: Alive and Kicking, opening Off-Broadway at the 47th Street Theatre. Marking the long-running revue's 30th anniversary, the show features spoofs of Porgy and Bess, Once, Evita, Anything Goes, Spider-Man Turn Off the Dark, Newsies, The Book of Mormon, and Nice Work if You Can Get It, among others.
2013 Lear deBessonet and Todd Almond's musical adaptation of William Shakespeare's The Tempest, utilizing a 200-person cast comprised of professional actors and members of the public, begins performances at the Delacorte Theater as the first installment of The Public Theater's Public Works initiative. Co-writer Almond, Laura Benanti, Norm Lewis, Carson Elrod, Jeff Hiller, and Jacob Ming-Trent star.
2016 A 60th anniversary revival of Lerner and Loewe’s My Fair Lady, directed by original Eliza Doolittle, Julie Andrews, opens at the Sydney Opera House in Sydney, Australia. The production stars Olivier Award winner Alex Jennings as Professor Higgins and young Australian star Anna O'Byrne as Eliza.
2016 Mandy Gonzalez, who created the role of Nina Rosario in Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Tony Award-winning musical In the Heights, joins the cast of his hit Broadway musical Hamilton as Angelica Schuyler.
Today's Birthdays: James K. Hackett (1869–1926). Otto Kruger (1885–1974). Billy Rose (1899–1966). Jo Anne Worley (b. 1937). Swoosie Kurtz (b. 1944). Jane Curtin (b. 1947). Rosie Perez (b. 1964). Anika Noni Rose (b. 1972). Bertie Carvel (b. 1977).
Watch highlights from Forbidden Broadway: Alive and Kicking:
