1908 British actor Michael Redgrave is born today. He will grow to play opposite the likes of Olivier and Gielgud. His wife is actress Rachel Kempson and their children are Vanessa, Corin and Lynn. Natasha Richardson, star of the revival of Cabaret, is their granddaughter.

1911 The Winter Garden, a 1,600 seat Shubert theatre, opens with La Belle Paree. Al Jolson is in the cast.

1924 It's a Leap Year at London's Hippodrome. George Robey heads the cast of this revue that will run 471 performances. Laurie Wylie provides the book for Clifford Harris's score.

1936 Long before Cats, T.S. Eliot gets music by Lehman Engel for his religious drama, Murder in the Cathedral. It runs 38 performances at the Manhattan Theatre.

1945 Go ahead and Kiss Them for Me. Luther Davis bases his comedy on Frederic Wakeman's Shore Leave. Judy Holliday, Richard Widmark, and Paul Ford are in the cast at the Belasco Theatre. There will be 111 performances.

1988 David Henry Hwang's gender-bending drama, M. Butterfly, opens at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre on Broadway. John Lithgow and B. D. Wong star as the diplomat and his lover in the work, which wins the Best Play Tony Award.

1997 Shakespeare meets Ellington in the musical Play On!, which updates Shakespeare's Twelfth Night to 1940s Harlem with a score of Duke Ellington standards. The Sheldon Epps conception opens at the Brooks Atkinson Theatre with stars Andre De Shields and Tonya Pinkins.

More of Today's Birthdays: Carl Reiner 1922. Ray Goulding 1922. Hal Linden 1931. Ted Bessell 1935. Chip Zien 1947. William Hurt 1950. Holly Hunter 1958.