1926 Beatrice Lillie and Charles Winninger are featured in the musical revue Oh, Please at the Fulton Theatre. It runs 75 performances.
1927 Sirocco was memorable for being one of Noël Coward's less successful ventures. Daly's Theatre in London houses just 28 performances of the drama, with Ivor Novello, George Coulouris, and Ada King in the cast.
1952 Geraldine McEwan and Leslie Phillips vow For Better, For Worse... at London's Comedy Theatre. Arthur Watkyn's lighthearted look at a young couple searching for a home during a housing shortage runs 607 performances. John Counsell directs.
1953 Franchot Tone stars as a psychoanalyst who gets comically entangled with his patients in Oh, Men! Oh, Women! Written and directed by Edward Chodorov, with a cast that includes Anne Jackson, Larry Blyden, Betsy von Furstenberg, and Gig Young, the show runs nearly 48 weeks at Henry Miller's Theatre.
1980 Broadway opening night for Amadeus, Peter Shaffer's drama about the tragic difference between talent and genius. Tim Curry plays Mozart and Ian McKellen plays Salieri in the play, which opens at the Broadhurst Theatre and runs 1,181 performances. The 1984 film version wins eight Oscars including Best Picture.
1998 The new musical Parade, directed by Hal Prince, opens, starring Carolee Carmello and the late Brent Carver. Jason Robert Brown composed the music and lyrics, and Alfred Uhry wrote the book. The plot concerns the true story of Leo Frank, a Jewish man wrongly accused of murder and lynched by an angry Atlanta mob in 1915. Parade wins Tony Awards for Best Score and Best Book of a Musical. It is named Best Musical by the New York Drama Critics Circle, but runs just 85 performances.
2008 Emmy Award winner Jeremy Piven abruptly departs the acclaimed Broadway revival of David Mamet's Speed-the-Plow, citing high levels of mercury. The vacated role of Bobby Gould is filled first by Norbert Leo Butz and later William H. Macy.
2009 Martin Crimp's adaptation of Molière's The Misanthrope, starring Academy Award nominee Keira Knightley, opens at the West End's Comedy Theatre. Directed by Thea Sharrock, the production transports the action from 17th-century Paris to modern-day London.
2017 The Shakespeare's Globe production of Claire van Kampen's Farinelli and the King opens on Broadway at the Belasco Theatre. Mark Rylance stars as King Philippe V of Spain, who, suffering with insomnia, enlists the castrato Farinelli to comfort him through song.
Today's Birthdays: Herbert Beerbohm Tree (1852–1917). Erwin Piscator (1893–1966). Katina Paxinou (1900–1973). Tommy Steele (b. 1936). Susan Watson (b. 1938). Novella Nelson (1939–2017). Eugene Levy (b. 1946). Bill Pullman (b. 1953). Sarah Paulson (b. 1974).
