1901 A man marries his fiancée On the Quiet because his parents want him to finish Yale. Playwright Augustus Thomas based the comedy on a real incident. It runs at the Madison Square Theatre in New York.
1921 The Ambassador Theatre opens on West 49th Street in New York with the musical The Rose Girl by William Carey Duncan. Architect Herbert J. Krapp maximizes the use of space by designing the stage to run diagonally across the space. It is the first of six theatres the Shuberts build on 48th and 49th Streets.
1929 Eugene O'Neill takes on industrialization in his drama Dynamo, starring Claudette Colbert and Dudley Digges. Presented by The Theatre Guild, it runs at the Martin Beck Theatre for 50 performances.
1958 John Osborne and Anthony Creighton write an Epitaph for George Dillon at the Royal Court Theatre in London. Robert Stephens is Dillon, a failed, self-pitying playwright looking for an audience.
1960 Jack Richardson's The Prodigal opens Off-Broadway at the Downtown Theatre and runs there for several months.
1979 They're Playing Our Song opens on Broadway at the Imperial Theatre. The musical, with a book by Neil Simon, is based on the life of composer Marvin Hamlisch and lyricist Carole Bayer Sayer.
1997 Whoopi Goldberg takes over the role of Pseudolus in the Jerry Zaks-directed revival of Stephen Sondheim, Burt Shevelove, and Larry Gelbart's A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. The role was played by Zero Mostel in the original 1962 production and Nathan Lane in the revival.
2002 A Who's Who of Broadway converges on the Minskoff Theatre to salute the late revered drama guru Lee Strasberg and christen a new award in his name. Among those at the event: F. Murray Abraham, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Al Pacino, Marlo Thomas, Ellen Burstyn, Celeste Holm, and Patrick Wilson.
2004 The late Christopher Plummer begins performances of King Lear at Lincoln Center's Vivan Beaumont Theater. The performance earns him a Tony nomination.
2012 The 2 PM matinee of The Phantom of the Opera marks the Broadway production's 10,000th performance. The curtain call celebration includes a note from director Harold Prince read by Phantom-at-the-time Hugh Panaro and congratulations from composer Andrew Lloyd Webber and producer Cameron Mackintosh via video feed.
Today's Birthdays: Fred Saidy (1907–1982). Sidney Sheldon (1917–2007). Eva Gabor (1921–1995). Kim Stanley (1925–2001). Tina Louise (b. 1935). Philip Anglim (b. 1953). Damian Lewis ( b. 1971). Brandy Norwood (b. 1979). Curtis Holbrook (b. 1982).
