1622 Birthday of Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, known by the nom de plume Molière, one of France's greatest playwrights, who writes Tartuffe, School for Wives, Scapin, The Misanthrope, The Miser, and many other plays. At the age of 51, he collapses during a performance of his own The Imaginary Invalid and later dies.
1879 U.S. premiere of Gilbert and Sullivan's H.M.S. Pinafore at the Standard Theatre, creating a sensation and inspiring a generation of young writers to try their hands at comic operetta—a key moment in the development of the musical.
1911 Birthday of Cy Feuer, who, in partnership with Ernest H. Martin, produces Broadway classics Guys and Dolls, Can-Can, The Boy Friend, How To Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, and Little Me.
1917 Jerome Kern opens his second musical in four days. Titled Love o' Mike, it's the story of a man who inspires the adoration of a group of young women. Everything their boyfriends do to sabotage him just makes the girls love him more. Songs, including "It Wasn't My Fault," help boost the show to a 192 performance run.
1919 Just what's going on Up in Mabel's Room? Audiences head to the Eltinge Theatre in New York to find out in the comedy by Wilson Collison and Otto Harbach. Enid Markey and Hazel Dawn star for 229 performances.
1923 When the factory-owner's son decides the workers must take over the ailing company, it takes a millionaire fresh from an asylum to bail them out of debt. Yep, Give and Take is a comedy. Aaron Hoffman's farce runs beyond the season. Vivian Tobin, Louis Mann, and Robert Craig are in the cast at the 49th Street Theatre.
1948 With Sid Caesar in the cast, I'd Make Mine Manhattan too. The revue with music by Richard Levine and sketches by Arnold Horwitt runs almost 53 weeks. Hassard Short directs.
1981 Eva Le Gallienne, at age 82, returns to Broadway to star in To Grandmother's House We Go, which runs 61 performances at the Biltmore Theatre. Her co-star is Shepperd Strudwick.
1982 The revue Forbidden Broadway opens at Palsson's nightclub in New York. Featuring showtune parodies by Gerard Alessandrini, the revue has numerous editions at various venues over the years.
2008 An unusual tongue-in-cheek stage adaptation of the Alfred Hitchcock film thriller The 39 Steps arrives at the American Airlines Theatre from London. The story's dozens of characters are performed quick-change style by an ensemble of four—or possibly five—actors. After completing its limited engagement at the American Airlines, the production transfers to the Cort Theatre, and then to the Helen Hayes Theatre.
2009 Soul of Shaolin, the martial arts-driven tale of an orphan boy raised in the ancient ways of monks, opens at the Marquis Theatre, marking the first time a production from the People's Republic of China appeared on Broadway.
2015 Rob McClure, Brynn O'Malley, and Tony Danza star on Broadway in Honeymoon in Vegas, opening at the Nederlander Theatre. Jason Robert Brown wrote the songs for the musical based on the 1992 film of the same name. It runs 93 performances.
2017 The Tony, Grammy, and Olivier Award-winning musical Jersey Boys closes on Broadway after 4,642 performances. With a run of over 11 years, the Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons musical was the longest-running tenant in the August Wilson Theatre's (formerly the Virginia Theatre) almost 100-year history.
2020 My Name Is Lucy Barton, the solo show starring Laura Linney, opens for a limited run at Manhattan Theatre Club's Samuel J. Friedman Theatre, directed by Richard Eyre.
More of Today's Birthdays: Ivor Novello (1893-1951). Chester Hale (1897-1984). Torin Thatcher (1905-1981). Eddie Craven (1909-1991). Lloyd Bridges (1913-1998). Thelma Carpenter (1922-1997). Edwin Sherin (1930-2017). Andrea Martin (b. 1947). Mario Van Peebles (b. 1957). Jerry Mitchell (b. 1960). Shauna Hicks (b. 1962). Karine Plantadit (b. 1970). Bianca Marroquin (b. 1975).
