Today in Theatre History: AUGUST 13
By Ernio Hernandez
and Robert Viagas
13 Aug 2008
1895 Bert Lahr (nee Irving Lahrheim), the future stage and screen clown, is born today in New York. Following an early career in Vaudeville, Lahr will enjoy a widely successful career on Broadway in such musicals as DuBarry was a Lady and Foxy. Lahr is best remembered by today's audiences for his performance as the Cowardly Lion in the 1939 film “The Wizard of Oz.”
1921 Lynn Fontanne has her first major hit in the starring role of Dulcy, the comedy by George S. Kaufman and Marc Connolly. Despite her success, she will rarely perform without future husband Alfred Lunt again.
1981 Ira Levin’s thriller Deathtrap becomes Broadway's longest-running show of that genre tonight, as it plays its 1,445th performance. Currently featured in the cast of the production at the Music Box Theatre are Farley Granger, Elizabeth Parrish, Ernest Townsend, and Marian Seldes. Deathtrap opened at the Music Box on Feb. 26, 1978, with Seldes, John Wood, and Victor Garber in the cast. Tony nominations were awarded for the play, director Robert Moore, Seldes, and fellow original cast member Victor Garber. 1997 Mere Mortals and Others, the Off-Off-Broadway success which played at Primary Stages moves to Off-Broadway's John Houseman Theatre. The follow-up to playwright David Ives' comic compilation of one-acts All in the Timing, Mere Mortals combines six other one-acts as directed by John Rando. The six plays comprising the show are: Mere Mortals, Speed The Play, Foreplay, Or, The Art Of The Fugue, Degas, C'Est Moi, the newly written Dr. Fritz and Time Flies. 2001 "I love you, Butthead," Monica Lewinsky confessed she told then-President Bill Clinton in a phone conversation with her confidante, Linda Tripp. Snatches, a collection of such illuminating details from the infamous Lewinsky incident which almost led to Clinton's removal from office, are gathered into a play with the unfortunate title Snatches. The comedy, adapted verbatim from the women's taped talks by Laura Strausfield begins performances today at the 78th Street Theatre Lab Off-Broadway. More of Today's Birthdays: Buddy Rogers 1904.
Barbara Bennett 1906. Gene Raymond 1908. Kurt Kasznar 1913.
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