Today in Theatre History: NOVEMBER 2
By Robert Viagas
and Sam Maher and Steve Luber
02 Nov 2008
1903 Daniel Frohman opens the New Lyceum Theatre on Manhattan's West 45th Street with E.H. Sothern in The Proud Prince. Designed by Herts & Tallant, the theatre was later rechristened simply the Lyceum. It is today the oldest continuously-operating legitimate theatre in New York.
1915 Opening night at the Princess Theatre for Harold Brighouse's popular comedy Hobson's Choice, about a man who bars his daughters from marrying so he won't have to pay dowries. It runs 135 performances and is filmed at least three times.
1921 Eugene O'Neill's Anna Christie, starring Pauline Lord and George Marion, opens tonight at the Vanderbilt Theatre. Critics check their high praise for the show with reservations about the play's "happy ending," suggesting that O'Neill is making concessions to commercial theatre. O'Neill considers the show "a failure," but it will run for 177 performances and will win the author his second Pulitzer Prize. 1937 George M. Cohan stars in the Rodgers and Hart musical I'd Rather Be Right, which opens tonight at the Alvin Theatre. Cohan stars as a man he hates, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. The book, written by Hart and George S. Kaufman, follows Roosevelt's attempts to balance the budget in order to finance a young couple's wedding. The show will run for nine months, with the first of those having Cohan in a leg cast. 1949 Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne celebrate their 25th wedding anniversary by starring in S.N. Behrman's comedy. I Know, My Love, which opens tonight at the Shubert Theatre. Oddly enough, the show focuses on a couple looking back over 50 years of marriage. The Lunts will also appear on the cover of Life next week in honor of the event. 1950 George Bernard Shaw dies today. The Irish born playwright and critic was 94 years old. Shaw will be remembered for his contributions to the theatre through his plays Pygmalion, Major Barbara and Saint Joan.
1961 Alfred Drake stars as master actor Edmund Kean in the Wright & Forrest musical, Kean, which opens tonight at the Broadway Theatre, and closes just 92 performances later.
1971 Barbara Cook makes her final (so far!) appearance in a Broadway book musical in the Truman Capote tuner The Grass Harp, also featuring Karen Morrow, Max Showalter and Russ Thacker. It runs just 7 performances at the Martin Beck Theatre, but the cast album of the charming Claibe Richardson/Kenward Elmslie score lifts it to minor cult status.
1989 A splashy stage adaptation of the movie musical Meet Me in St. Louis opens at the Gershwin Theatre on Broadway tonight with Betty Garrett, George Hearn and Donna Kane (in the role originated on film by Judy Garland). It runs 252 performances.
1997 Tonight is the first of many cast changes in the Broadway hit Rent. Adam Pascal, as the struggling songwriter Roger, and Fredi Walker, playing the successful lawyer Joanne, give their last performances (for the time being). Gwen Stewart and Norbert Leo Butz, ensemble members, are also giving their last performances in their original roles, as they will take over the roles left behind by Ms. Walker and Mr. Pascal, respectively, at the next performance. With cast members from international and national tour companies coming to the Broadway production constantly, it's hard to keep up with the changes. However, Rent is still going strong on Broadway, having surpassed 4,800 performances by late October 2007.
2006 The oddball and sad story of real-life Hamptons cat ladies Edie and Edie Beale makes an unlikely hit musical, Grey Gardens, which transfers to the Walter Kerr Thetre from a sold-out Off-Broadway run at Playwrights Horizons.
More of Today's Birthdays: Dennis King 1897. Paul Ford 1901. Peggy Conklin 1906.
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