1974 Chez Nous, Peter Nichols' play highlights changing sexual mores. It stars Albert Finney, Denholm Elliot and Geraldine McEwan at London's Globe Theatre. It will run this season and into the next.

1975 Bill Gunn's Black Picture Show runs at the Vivian Beaumont Theatre for 41 performances.

1979 Tommy plays at the Queen's Theatre in London. Music is provided by Pete Townshend and The Who, with direction by Paul Tomlinson and John Hole. Allan Love stars. The show will play 118 times. In 1994, Townshend, director Des McAnuff and choreographer Wayne Cilento will turn Tommy into a full-fledged Broadway musical.

2002 Elaine Stritch's sold-out Public Theatre solo show, Elaine Stritch: At Liberty moves to Broadway. It will go on to win the 2002 Tony Award for Best Special Event.

2003 Oscar-winner Whoopi Goldberg stars with Charles S. "Roc" Dutton in a Broadway revival of August Wilson's Ma Rainey's Black Bottom. The opening comes after a disastrous preview period in which three actors were replaced, an actor suffered a burst blood vessel in his leg, and director Marion McClinton was hospitalized with kidney and blood pressure problems. The revival winds up lasting just 69 performances.

2009 James Whitmore, the Tony Award-winning and Oscar-nominated character actor, dies at age 87. Mr. Whitmore was widely respected for the one-man plays that he starred in on Broadway and around the country, including Give 'Em Hell, Harry, Bully and Will Rogers' USA.

Today's Birthdays: Henry Irving 1838. Ramon Novarro 1899. Zsa Zsa Gabor 1916. Rip Torn 1931. Kathy Najimy 1957.