Today in Theatre History: DECEMBER 7
By Robert Viagas
and Anne Bradley, Christopher Reichheld and Sam Maher
07 Dec 2008
1918 It's a Scandal at London's Strand Theatre. This Cosmo Hamilton comedy exposes a woman pretending to be married to a gentleman. Kyrle Bellew and Noel Coward star.
1931 Birthday of Ellen Stewart, whose LaMama Experimental Theatre Club will serve as one of the cornerstones of the Off-Off-Broadway movement.
1932 Walk a Little Faster to the St. James Theatre. You'll see Beatrice Lillie starring in skits by S.J. Perelman. Vernon Duke and E.Y. Harburg provide music, including the song "April in Paris." It will run 15 weeks. 1937 Sybil Thorndike plays the lead in The Trojan Women at London's Adelphi Theatre. Lewis Casson stages this Euripides play. 1946 Laurette Taylor dies today. Her career spanned almost 40 years. Two of her more memorable performances were in Peg O' My Heart, created by her husband J. Hartley Manners; and Amanda Wingfield in The Glass Menagerie. 1975 The Norman Conquests, a trilogy of three comedies, opens tonight at the Morosco Theatre. Alan Ayckbourn’s set of plays includes stars Ken Howard, Richard Benjamin, Paula Prentiss, and Estelle Parsons. The show will run for 76 performances. 2000 Two-time Tony winner John Cullum stars in Wendy Wasserstein's latest, Old Money. The play opens tonight at Lincoln Center Theatre's Mitzi E. Newhouse Theatre, under the direction of Mark Brokaw. Even before the first performance, Old Money had sold out tickets for its entire run through Jan. 14, 2001.
2003 Al Pacino, Meryl Streep and Emma Thomposon star in HBO's TV adaptation of Tony Kushner's Tony- and Pulitzer-winning Angels in America, which draws 4.2 million viewers, making it the year's top cable movie. It will also go on to win 11 Emmy Awards, the most ever for a single broadcast.
More of Today's Birthdays: William S. Hart 1864. Heywood Broun 1888. Fay Bainter 1892. Eli Wallach 1915. Hurd Hatfield 1917. Ellen Stewart 1931. Ellen Burstyn 1932. A.J. Antoon 1944. Leata Galloway 1950. Jeffrey Wright 1965.
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