1938 Thornton Wilder turns the spotlight on the simple trials and tribulations of Our Town. Martha Scott and Frank Craven are among the cast at the Henry Miller's Theatre. It wins the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and runs 336 performances. David Cromer's 2009 Off-Broadway revival surpasses that total on December 16, 2009, becoming the longest-running production of the play in its history.
1946 Playing the supposedly dumb blonde to the hilt, Judy Holliday stars in Born Yesterday by Garson Kanin. It plays 1,642 performances. Holliday reprises her role in the film adaptation, winning an Oscar.
1958 Tony Randall stars as a sailor with a woman in at least two ports in Oh Captain! The musical, with songs by Jay Livingston and Ray Evans, is directed by José Ferrer. It runs at the Alvin Theatre in New York for 192 performances.
1982 Pump Boys and Dinettes brings a North Carolina highway rest stop to Broadway when the musical transfers to the Princess Theatre. The country-flavored revue about the workers at an adjacent gas station and diner was conceived and written by its original cast:John Foley, Mark Hardwick, Debra Monk, Cass Morgan, John Schimmel, and Jim Wann. It runs 573 performances.
1999 Hang on, Snoopy! The revival of You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown opens at the Ambassador Theatre with a cast that includes Anthony Rapp, Roger Bart, Ilana Levine, BD Wong, and Kristin Chenoweth. Director Michael Mayer wrote new dialogue for the 32-year-old show, and Andrew Lippa added several new songs. Chenoweth and Bart both win Tony Awards for their performances.
2003 Opening night on Broadway for Richard Greenberg's baseball drama Take Me Out. The story of a baseball star who comes out as gay wins the 2003 Tony Award for Best Play, and star Denis O'Hare wins a statuette for Best Featured Actor.
2004 Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Phantom of the Opera plays its 6,681 performance, surpassing Les Misérables to become the second longest-running production in Broadway history. In January 2006, it surpasses Cats to become number one.
2020 A musical adaptation of the 1969 movie Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice, about two couples thrown into a sexual revolution, opens Off-Broadway at The New Group. The Duncan Sheik, Amanda Green, and Marc Sherman musical stars Jennifer Damiano as Carol, Ana Nogueira as Alice, Joél Pérez as Bob, and Michael Zegen as Ted.
More of Today's Birthdays: Richard Boleslavsky (1889–1937). Ugo Betti (1892–1953). Eddie Foy, Jr. (1905–1983). Robert Coote (1909–1982). Conrad Bain (1923–2013). Jerry Adler (b. 1929). David Newman (b. 1937). Conrad John Schuck (b. 1940). Michael Kubala (b. 1958). Jonathan Larson (1960–1996). Nic Rouleau (b. 1987). Jack DiFalco (b. 1996).
