Today's Birthdays 10/23 Late Edition

[do_re_milla]

Posted: 10/24/08 at 10:29am

Mme. Sarah Bernhardt 10/23/1844 - Mar 26, 1923 Producer, Writer, Performer; at 1 time, SB was the mistress of the wealthy Paris Singer, heir to the Singer Sewing Machine fortune; she had a leg amputated in 1915 and performed with an artificial leg - 1900 Cyrano de Bergerac; 1900 HAMLET (SB as Hamlet); 1900 La Dame aux Camelias; 1900 La Tosca; 1910 Sapho; "The Divine Sarah" will create dozens of memorable roles in French and English, notably in Alexandre Dumas, fils' classic La Dame aux Camelias, better known as Camille.

(Milton) ‘Gummo’ Marx 10/23/1892 - Apr 21, 1977 theatrical agent; vaudeville with his four brothers (Marx Brothers): The Four Nightingales, Fun in Hi Skule, Mr. Green’s Reception, Home Again

Lilyan Tashman 10/23/1899 - Mar 21, 1934 performer, Wife of Edmund Lowe (1924 - 1934) her death - Ziegfeld Follies of 1917 (W.C. Fields, Fanny Brice, Will Rogers, Bert Williams, Margaret St. Clair); Barnum Was Right

James Daly 10/23/1918 - Jul 3, 1978 performer, father of Tyne & Timothy Daly - Billy Budd (Lee Marvin); Period of Adjustment (Barbara Baxley)

Johnny Carson 10/23/1925 - Jan 22, 2005 performer, TV Talk Host - The Tunnel of Love (Marsha Hunt); tv's THE TONIGHT SHOW. After he left, late night was never the same.

Lisby Larson 10/23/1951 performer; Rex Hays (? - present) - The 5:00 Girl (Dee Hoty's Broadway debut); tv's & film's Texas; The Guiding Light; See No Evil, Hear No Evil; Law & Order; House of D (David Duchovny, Robin Williams, Frank Langella); 1st Born

Michael Rupert 10/23/1951 Composer, Performer - Legally Blonde; The Happy Time (Robert Goulet, David Wayne, Charles Durning); Shakespeare's Cabaret; Falsettos; Ragtime [replacement]; tv's & film's The Partridge Family; A Boy and His Dog; Life with Mikey; Law & Order; The Myth of Fingerprints

Andrew Hill Newman 10/23/1959 performer; writer; longest running actor in the role of Seymour in "Little Shop of Horrors" (Orpheum Theatre - NYC). - origs Merlin (Chita Rivera, Doug Henning, Pat Gorman, Christian Slater); Big River; tv's & film's Funny About Love; Lethal Weapon 3; The Commish; The Adventures of Brisco County Jr.; The Amanda Show; Nobody's Perfect; Drake & Josh

Dumisani Dlamini 10/23/1963 performer; producer - Sarafina; film's Drum (Taye Diggs); Sarafina

Linzi Hateley 10/23/1970 performer - Carrie; tv's & film's Stage by Stage: Les Misérables; Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat; Julie and the Cadillacs; A Christmas Carol

John Hill 10/23/1978 performer; writer - Hairspray; The Boy Fr Oz; tv's & film's Little Nikita; Quigley Down Under; Diagnosis Murder; Griffin and Phoenix

SHOWS THAT OPENED ON THIS DATE:

1905 Broadway debut of George Bernard Shaw's "scandalous" drama, Mrs. Warren's Profession, starring Mary Shaw as the woman who defends her prostitution as a business like any other.

1923 The Swan with Eva Le Gallienne, Basil Rathbone; later to become future Princess Grace Kelly's last film

1928 Animal Crackers - The Marx Brothers roar onto Broadway with their rowdy musical comedy Animal Crackers by George S. Kaufman and Morrie Ryskind. It runs 191 performances, and is made into a landmark film comedy with most of the score deleted.

1942 A stage adaptation of Richard Wright's novel Native Son opens on Broadway. Orson Welles directs Canada Lee as Bigger Thomas, a black man whose accidental murder of a white girl awakens a storm of racist fury in a small town. It runs 84 performances.

1961 Kwamina with Sally Ann Howes, Rex Ingram, Terry Carter, Robert Guillaume, Mary Louise

1963 Barefoot in the Park - Mike Nichols collaborates with Neil Simon for the first time, directing Barefoot in the Park, which opens tonight at the Biltmore Theatre. Robert Redford and Elizabeth Ashley co-star in this comedy, which will be made into a movie in 1967. The Broadway production will run 1,532 performances.

1968 Maggie Flynn with Jack Cassidy, Shirley Jones & Jennifer Darling

1969 Jimmy with Frank Gorshin, Anita Gillette, Tony Stevens, & the marvelous Julie Wilson

1972 Pippin - The cast of Pippin has "magic to do" tonight as it opens at the Imperial Theatre. Ben Vereen, John Rubinstein, Irene Ryan, Jill Clayburgh and Leland Palmer head the cast of this show about accepting oneself for who you are. The story follows Pippin, son of Holy Roman Empire patriarch Charlemagne, as he realizes he is just not the hero he is or wants to be. Instead he learns to settle down and live life with a hearth and home. The legendary Bob Fosse directs and choreographs this show, which won him rave reviews and a Tony Award. The show will have a very successful run of 1,944 performances.

1975 Yentl - Isaac Bashevis Singer and Leah Napolin turned Singer's short story "Yentl, the Yeshiva Boy" into Yentl, which opened tonight at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre. The show, which ran 224 performances, starred Tovah Feldshuh as an orthodox Jewish girl who wishes to defy tradition and be educated like the boys. Barbra Streisand would play the role in the 1983 film.

1980 Tintypes - Lynne Thigpen, Jerry Zaks

1985 Mayor with Lenny Wolpe

2003 The Retreat From Moscow with Eileen Atkins (just wonderful), John Lithgow, Ben Chaplin

2008 Speed the Plow

ON THIS DAY IN:

1915 Some 25,000 women marched in New York City demanding the right to vote.

1950 - “The World’s Greatest Entertainer” (a billing he gave himself), Al Jolson (Asa Yoelson), died at the age of 64.

1958 - Russian poet and novelist Boris Pasternak was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. He, however, was forced to refuse the honor because of negative Soviet reaction. Pasternak won the award for writing Dr. Zhivago.

2002 Chechen rebels wielding guns and explosives seize a large Moscow theatre during a performance of the musical Nord-Ost, taking the audience hostage, taking hundreds hostage and threatening to kill their hostages unless the Russian army pulled out of Chechnya. After a three-day stand-off, Russian government forces will reclaim the building, but not until after the death of 129 hostages from an anesthetic gas pumped into the theatre by the would-be rescuers. No theatregoers are actually executed by the terrorists.

2002 Broadway librettist Adolph Green died in New York at age 87. All I can say about his memorial is that it was 1 of the most incredible events. I was in awe of the tributes & performances on stage as well as by the luminaries in attendance. Sitting next to me was Mr. & Mrs. Tony Randall. I'll never forget Peter Stone's moving tribute; Cheno's "If", or Adam Green's rendition of Captain Hook ala Adolph Green.

(sources: IBDB, NYT's ON THIS DAY, 440.com’s Those Were The Days, Playbill.com)

Milla