1924 Desire Under the Elms opens a run of 208 performances at the Greenwich Village Theatre, as Walter Huston, Charles Ellis and Mary Morris are featured in this Eugene O'Neill play.

1937 The actors play in street clothes against an almost bare, brick backdrop in a production of William Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, which opens tonight at the Mercury Theatre. The production proves especially popular with the younger audiences because they "rejoiced over this bizarre business because it was in fashion," reports Burns Mantle in his "The Best Plays of 1937-1938". Playing Brutus is a young Orson Welles, also the producer and director. The production runs almost five months, racking up 157 performances.

1958 French import La Plume De Ma Tante opens at the Royale Theatre. The title makes no sense -- which is exactly the point of this madcap revue, plumed by Robert Dhery.

1964 Luv will be in the air for 901 performances of Murray Schisgal's satire. The original cast includes Alan Arkin, Eli Wallach, and Anne Jackson directed by Mike Nichols.

1985 The Golden Land, a revue recalling the golden days of the Yiddish theatre, opens at the Second Avenue Theatre and will run for 277 performances. 2000 Comic actress Lily Tomlin, still seeking answers to meaning in human existence, will bring back her 1985 solo hit, Jane Wagner's The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe, back to Broadway tonight. Wagner re-approached the show with a fresh eye in anticipation of the new millennium, according to a statement. In it, Tomlin portrays a teen punk, a wise bag lady, hookers, a fitness freak, a husband, a lesbian editor and others. The show will run for 184 performances.

-- By Sam Maher, Steve Luber and Anne Bradley