Today's Birthdays 10/30

[do_re_milla]

Posted: 10/30/08 at 12:43pm

John Adams 10/30/1735 - 7/4/1826 Second president of the United States (1797-1801), source material - 1776

Richard Sheridan 10/31/1751 - 7/7/1816 playwright: The Critic, School for Scandal, The Rivals, source for All in Love by Jack Urbont and Bruce Geller

Ruth Gordon 10/30/1896 - Aug 28, 1985 performer, wife of Garson Kanin (1942 - 1985) her death - Three-Cornered Moon; 1937 A Doll's House; Over 21; 1976 Mrs. Warren's Profession (Lynn Redgrave, Philip Bosco, Milo O'Shea); Ethan Frome, The Country Wife and her own Years Ago; also in Thornton Wilder's The Matchmaker (source of Hello, Dolly!), and tv's & film's Academy Award-winning actress: Rosemary’s Baby [1968]; Every Which Way But Loose, Harold and Maude; screenplay writer [w/Garson Kanin]: Adam’s Rib; Emmy Award-winning actress: Taxi: Sugar Mama [Jan 16, 1979]

Louis Malle 10/30/1932 - 11/23/1995 French film director; descendant of a French nobleman who made a fortune in beet sugar during the Napoleonic Wars, created films that explored life and its meaning. One of the French Nouvelle Vague ("New Wave") directors of the 1950s and 1960s, he made films on both sides of the Atlantic; married to Candice Bergman, father of Chloe - Au Revoir Les Enfants; Pretty Baby; Atlantic City; Vanya on 42nd Street

Richard Gautier 10/30/1937 performer - Bye, Bye Birdie; tv's & film's Divorce American Style; Fun with Dick and Jane; Get Smart, and Get Smart, Again!

Henry (Franklin) Winkler 10/30/1945 performer; Was originally supposed to play Danny in the film Grease (197 but didn't accept for fear of being typecast after his famous role of Fonzie. - 42 Seconds from Broadway; The Dinner Party; tv's & film's Happy Days; The Lords of Flatbush; Out of Practice (Stockard Channing, Jennifer Tilly)

Harry Hamlin 10/30/1951 performer - 1984 Awake and Sing! (Nancy Marchand, Dick Latessa, Frances McDormand); 1996 Summer and Smoke (Mary McDonnell, Roberta Maxwell); tv's & film's LA Law; Veronica Mars; Perfume; Ink; Movie Movie; Clash of the Titans; Master of the Game

Matthew Morrison 10/30/1978 performer - Hairspray; The Light in the Piazza; A Naked Girl on the Appian Way (Jill Clayburgh, Richard Thomas); 2008 South Pacific; tv's 2004 Once Upon a Mattress

SHOWS THAT OPENED ON THIS DATE:

1922 Broadway premiere of Pirandello's influential surrealist drama, "Six Characters in Search of an Author," with Florence Eldridge.

1934 Henry Fonda earns stardom in "The Farmer Takes a Wife" by Frank B. Esler and Marc Connolly, which opens today at the 46th Street Theatre for 104 performances.

1938 The radio play "The War of the Worlds," starring Orson Welles, aired on CBS. The live drama, which employed fake news reports, panicked some listeners who thought its portrayal of a Martian invasion was true.

1940 Ethel Merman knocks 'em dead in Cole Porter's Panama Hattie, which opens today at the 46th Street Theatre for a 501-performance run that introduces the standard "Make It Another Old-Fashioned, Please."

1949 A new musical based on Alan Paton's novel "Cry, the Beloved Country" opens tonight at the Music Box Theatre. Kurt Weill provides the music for tonight's Lost in the Stars, whose book and lyrics are by Maxwell Anderson. The story follows black suffering in South Africa and starred Todd Duncan, Leslie Banks, Warren Coleman, and Inez Matthews. What is interesting here is that the musical dealt with racism, but blacks weren't even allowed to sit in the orchestra of the theatre. The show closed after only 28 performances due to this "no coloreds downstairs" policy and also because of a wide variety of reviews. Some critics loved the show, while others called it "artful artlessness."

1956 A revival of George Bernard Shaw's Major Barbara opens tonight at the Martin Beck Theatre. Charles Laughton directs this star-studded cast, which includes Glynis Johns, Eli Wallach, Cornelia Otis Skinner and Burgess Meredith. The revival will run 29 weeks, racking up 232 performances.

1963 Ballad of the Sad Cafe by Edward Albee opens tonight at the Martin Beck Theatre. John Chapman, critic for the Daily News, calls the show "magnificent theatre." Colleen Dewhurst, Roscoe Lee Browne, and Michael Dunn co-star in this show that is directed by Alan Schneider. Albee's inspiration is the Carson McCullers' story of the same name. The show will run for 123 performances.

2003 The Wicked Witch of the West rides again in Wicked, a musical prequel to The Wizard of Oz. Idina Menzel (who will win a Tony Award in the role) and Kristin Chenoweth play the witches, with veteran Joel Grey hoofing as the Wonderful Wizard of Oz. The production also wecomes back to Broadway composer Stephen Schwartz (Godspell, Pippin).

ON THIS DAY IN:

1938 The radio play "The War of the Worlds," starring Orson Welles, aired on CBS. The live drama, which employed fake news reports, panicked some listeners who thought its portrayal of a Martian invasion was true.

1975 The New York Daily News ran the headline "Ford to City: Drop Dead" a day after President Gerald R. Ford said he would veto any proposed federal bailout of New York City.

2000 Comedian, TV host, author and composer Steve Allen died at age 78.

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

Milla