Today's Birthdays 10/7

[do_re_milla]

Posted: 10/7/04 at 10:45am

Ralph Rainger 10/07/1891 - Oct 23, 1942 Composer, Lyricist, Performer, Musician - Queen High (Charlie Ruggles); Angela (Eric Blore, Jeanette MacDonald); Tattle Tales (Dame Edith Evans, Frank Fay, Barbara Stanwyck); A Day in Hollywood / A Night in the Ukraine (Priscilla Lopez)

Andy Devine 10/7/1905 - 2/18/1977 performer - tv's & film's The Adventures of Wild Bill Hickok, Flipper, Andy’s Gang, Whale of a Tale, Myra Breckinridge, How the West was Won, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, The Red Badge of Courage, Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves

Alfred Drake 10/07/1914 - Jul 25, 1992 Writer, Director, Performer, Translator, what didn't/couldn't this man do? Look at the chances he took! - orig. BABES IN ARMS (Dan Dailey); 1 FOR THE MONEY (Gene Kelly, Keenan Wynn); THE STRAT HAT REVUE (Jerome Robbins, Danny Kaye, Imogene Coca); OUT OF THE FRYING PAN (Barbara Bel Geddes); YESTERDAY'S MUSIC (Jessica Tandy, Paul Muni); OKLAHOMA!; SING OUT, SWEET LAND (Juanita Hall, Bibi Osterwald); KISS ME, KATE; THE LIAR (Martin Balsam, Walter Matthau); replacement in orig THE KING & I; COURTIN' TIME (Joe E. Brown); THE GAMBLER (E.G. Marshall); KISMET; KEAN; LORENZO (Fritz Weaver); 1964 HAMLET (the cast was "holy moly!"); THOSE THAT PLAY THE CLOWNS (Jerry Dodge); SONG OF THE GRASSHOPPER (Diana Davila); GIGI (Agnes Morehead, Daniel Massey, Karin Wolfe); 1975 THE SKIN OF OUR TEETH (Elizabeth Ashley, Martha Scott, Barry Livingston)

June Allyson (Ella Geisman) 10/7/1917 performer, widow of actor Dick Powell - tv's & film's Best Foot Forward, The Glen Miller Story, Little Women, Strategic Air Command; TV host: The Dupont Show with June Allyson

Reid Shelton 10/07/1924 - Jun 8, 1997 performer - origs. WISH YOU WERE HERE; BY THE BEAUTIFUL SEA (they hysterically funny Anne Francine, Shirley Booth; THE SAINT OF BLEEKER ST. (Met Opera stars Richard Cassilly, Mignon Dunn); MY FAIR LADY; OH WHAT A LOVELY WAR; CANTERBURY TALES (Sandy Duncan); 1600 PENNSYLVANIA AVE. (Patricia Routledge, Ken Howard, Beth Fowler); ANNIE

R.D. (Ronald David) Laing 10/7/1927 - 8/23/1989 psychiatrist, author whose books IMHO all actors should read (with dictionary in hand)

William Parry 10/07/1947 performer - THE LEAF PEOPLE; ROCKABYE HAMLET (Larry Marshall, Meatloaf, Pat Gorman, Beverly D'Angelo); SUNDAY IN THE PARK WITH GEORGE (Charles Kimbrough, Dana Ivey, Mandy Patinkin, Bernadette Peters); INTO THE LIGHT (Dean Jones, Susan Bigelow); PASSION; 2003 GYPSY

Yo-Yo Ma 10/7/1955 - musician: cello virtuoso, 1 of the greatest living cellists

Toni Braxton 10/07/1968 performer - replacement in Beauty & the Beast & Aida

SHOWS THAT OPENED ON THIS DATE:

One Touch of Venus 10/07/1943 - Paula Laurence, Mary Martin

1948 Love Life, one of the more interesting musical experiments of the postwar years, opens at the 46th Street Theatre. Billed as "A Vaudeville," it contains sketches about love stretching from the 18th century to the present. Lots of talent involved: music by Kurt Weill, lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner, directed by Elia Kazan, choreography by Michael Kidd, starring Nanette Fabray and Ray Middleton. It runs 252 performances.

1960 Judy Holliday's first attempt at a straight dramatic role is smashed today as Laurette closes in Philadelphia, which is where it was being tried out for Broadway. The play, about actress Laurette Taylor, was closed by the producer, who declared Holliday as having "to undergo corrective surgery for a throat condition." The truth is that Holliday has breast cancer and will die June 7, 1965.

1975 Kevin Kline and Patti LuPone, both members of the first graduating class of the drama department at the Juilliard School, star tonight in The Acting Company's production of The Robber Bridegroom at the Harkness Theatre. This production was based on the 1942 novella of the same name by Eudora Welty. Although the production will run only 15 performances, it will transfer to Broadway at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre merely a year and two days later for a run of 145 performances. Steven Suskin says this show belongs in the category of "good shows that unhappily fail."

The 1940's Radio Hour 10/07/1979 - Dee Dee Bridgewater, Mary-Cleere Haran (wonderful cabaret performer!)

1982 The Winter Garden Theatre hosts the opening of what will become the most successful musical in the history of Broadway, Cats. Andrew Lloyd Webber's rendition of the T.S. Eliot collection of poems, "Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats," boasts advance sales of $6.2 million before it even opens. The show has sound and special effects galore, no dialogue, and a diva in the making, Betty Buckley, singing its most memorable tune, "Memory." Cats wins seven Tony awards and plays in more than 250 cities around the world. By the time it closes on Sept. 10, 2000, Cats plays 7485 performances, far outpacing previous long-run champ, A Chorus Line.

1999 Susan Stroman and John Weidman premiere their propulsive new "dance play" Contact at Lincoln Center Theater's Mitzi Newhouse Theatre. The show, which will break new ground as a hybrid theatrical genre, stars Karen Ziemba, Boyd Gaines and newcomer Deborah Yates. It will transfer to LCT's Vivian Beaumont Theatre for a Broadway run starting March 30.

2001 The "bong and dance" musical Reefer Madness, based on the cult anti-marijuana film of 1936, opens Off-Broadway, starring Christian Campbell, Gregg Edelman and Michele Pawk.

ON THIS DAY IN:

1849 Author Edgar Allan Poe died in Baltimore at age 40.

1954 Marian Anderson became the first black singer hired by the Metropolitan Opera in New York

1996 The Circle Repertory Company, having lived out its 28-year life to great success, folds, owing the IRS more than $700,000. The company will be remembered for showcasing the work of such distinguished American playwrights as Albert Innaurato, Edward Moore, and Lanford Wilson, who was also a co-founder.

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

Milla