1889 Playwright and director George S. Kaufman is born in Pittsburgh. A former newsman, Kaufman makes his mark with the comedy Dulcy in 1921, and goes on to write dozens of comedies, dramas, and musicals, at a clip of two or three a year until the 1940s, often in collaboration with the likes of Moss Hart and Edna Ferber. He wins the Pulitzer Prize twice, for his work on Of Thee I Sing and You Can't Take It With You, and wins his only Tony Award for directing the original Guys and Dolls. His plays include The Cocoanuts and Animal Crackers (both for The Marx Brothers), Merton of the Movies, The Royal Family, I'd Rather Be Right, Once in a Lifetime, Dinner at Eight, and The Man Who Came to Dinner.

1908 Birthday of actor Burgess Meredith, whose long Broadway career includes the original productions of High Tor, Winterset, She Loves Me Not, and The Remarkable Mr. Pennypacker. He creates two memorable screen roles as well: the umbrella-wielding villain The Penguin in TV's Batman, and the hard-bitten boxing coach who literally eggs Sylvester Stallone on to glory in Rocky.

1922 A revival of Hamlet opens at the Sam Harris Theatre. John Barrymore in the title role is "the new and lasting Hamlet," says The New York Times. The production—which was produced and directed by Arthur Hopkins with sets by Robert Edmond Jones—runs 101 performances, breaking Edwin Booth's long-standing 100-performance record.

1931 Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne have one of their greatest successes in The Theatre Guild's production of Robert E. Sherwood's romantic comedy Reunion in Vienna. The story of former royals now forced to work as cab drivers and such runs 268 performances in the depths of the Depression at the Martin Beck TheatreMouseclick- and goes on a European tour.

1935 Jumbo lumbers into the transformed Hippodrome. Billy Rose paid $340,000 for a circus motif and live acts to fill the stage. Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur write the book, Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart the lyrics and music, Jimmy Durante stars, yet the run pays back only half the investment. Durante delivers one of his most memorable lines: When police catch the big-nosed comic trying to smuggle the title character out of the circus, they demand to know where he thinks he's going with the elephant. Durante plants himself in front of the huge pachyderm and innocently replies, "What elephant?"

1959 The hills of the theatre district are alive with The Sound of Music, as the musical opens at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre. Mary Martin and Theodore Bikel star in the Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II classic, with book by Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse. The story follows the Von Trapp family and the appearance of their new governess, who helps the family gain courage in a time of insurmountable challenges. The show runs a whopping 1,443 performances and include the classics "Do-Re-Mi," "My Favorite Things," and "Edelweiss." The production ties for the 1960 Best Musical Tony Award with Fiorello! In 1965, Julie Andrews stars in a film adaptation that wins the Academy Award for Best Picture.

1964 A musical version of the 19th century melodrama The Drunkard, retitled The Wayward Way, opens at the New Lyric, Hammersmith. Jim Dale is in the cast.

1968 Opening night of Zorba, John Kander and Fred Ebb's musical adaptation of Zorba the Greek. One-time Fiddler on the Roof leads Herschel Bernardi and Maria Karnilova reteam for the musical, which plays the Imperial Theatre.

1981 Stephen Sondheim and George Furth's musical Merrily We Roll Along opens on Broadway at the Alvin Theatre. Directed by Harold Prince, it stars Jim Walton as Franklin, Ann Morrison as Mary, Lonny Price as Charley, Jason Alexander as Joe, Terry Finn as Gussie, and Sally Klein as Beth. In later years, Merrily We Roll Along is revised multiple times for productions regionally, Off-Broadway, and in London.

1989 A revival of Gypsy, starring Tyne Daly as Rose, opens at the St. James Theatre. The show, which co-stars Crista Moore as Louise, is Frank Rich of the New York Times' favorite musical, so a review from him includes the words "goose bump-raising torrents of laughter and tears." Other critics are lukewarm, but Daly wins a Tony for her performance, and the show plays a return engagement at the Marquis Theatre.

2000 British actor Janie Dee makes her New York stage debut in the role that won her London's Olivier, Evening Standard, and Critics Circle awards, playing a futuristic robot-actor in Alan Ayckbourn's dark comedy, Comic Potential, opening Off-Broadway at Manhattan Theatre Club. The play, set in the future, offers a world where actors and "actoids" are indistinguishable. An aspiring screenwriter gets more than he bargained for when he finds himself smitten with his almost-human leading lady.

2003 Priscilla Lopez, Daphne Rubin-Vega, and Jimmy Smits star in Nilo Cruz's Anna in the Tropics at the Royale Theatre. The production scores Tony nominations for Best Play and Best Featured Actress for Lopez, and goes on to win the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.

2006 Mary Poppins, the musical about a magical flying nanny who forever changes the lives of a family named Banks, opens on Broadway at the New Amsterdam Theatre. Ashley Brown stars in the title role immortalized on screen by Julie Andrews. The stage adaptation features both the original songs from the 1964 Disney film—with music and lyrics by Richard M. Sherman and Robert B. Sherman—as well as new songs by George Stiles and Anthony Drewe. The production runs for 2,619 performances.

2014 Hugh Jackman returns to Broadway in Jez Butterworth's The River, opening at Circle in the Square. Laura Donnelly and Cush Jumbo co-star in the mysterious drama about a man who brings his new girlfriend to a remote cabin for a night of trout-fishing.

2017 MCC Theater celebrates the opening of Jocelyn Bioh’s play School Girls; Or, The African Mean Girls Play Off-Broadway. The world premiere, directed by Tony winner Rebecca Taichman, marks the professional playwriting debut of playwright and actor Bioh. School Girls takes place at an exclusive boarding school in Ghana, where Paulina is queen bee, and explores themes of beauty, colorism, and adolescence. MCC also presented a return engagement of the Lucille Lortel- and Drama Desk Award-winning play in 2018.

More of Today's Birthdays: Halliwell Hobbes (1887–1962), Donna McKechnie (b. 1940), Paula Vogel (b. 1951), Elizabeth Perkins (b. 1960), Michele Pawk (b. 1961), Martha Plimpton (b. 1970).

Find out more about the history of The Sound of Music: