1948 One of the earliest ice-skating revues, Howdy, Mr. Ice! opens a 406-performance run at Broadway's Center Theatre.

1976 Opening today, Paul Rudd stars as Henry and Meryl Streep as Katharine in the New York Shakespeare Festival's Shakespeare-in-the-Park mounting of Henry V. Among the costars are Michael Moriarty (as Chorus), Jay O. Sanders, Stephen Lang, Philip Bosco (as Pistol), Gerry Bamman and Lenny Baker.

1992 Al Pacino hopes to use his star power to help raise money for the Circle in the Square Theatre by playing two shows in brief repertory: Salome and Chinese Coffee.

1997 Off Broadway gets a taste of Grand Ole Opry when the musical biography Always...Patsy Cline opens at the Variety Arts Theatre. Ted Swindley directs the musical, which he wrote about the country & western star who died in a plane crash in 1963.

1999 Shear Madness, the longest-running show in the history of Washington, D.C.'s Kennedy Center, celebrates its 5,000th performance today. The improvisational murder-mystery opened for a 12-week run Aug. 12, 1987 and has been playing ever since.