Today's Birthdays 4/13

[do_re_milla]

Posted: 4/12/08 at 6:08pm

Thomas Jefferson 4/13/1743 - 7/4/1826 President of the United States (1801-1809) and author of the Declaration of Independence, source mat'l

Samuel Beckett 4/13/1906 - 12/22/1989 Irish-born author, critic, and playwright; won the 1969 Nobel Prize for Literature - Waiting for Godot (Bert Lahr, E.G. Marshall, Alvin Epstein, Kurt Kasznar); Krapp's Last Tape/The Zoo Story; Happy Days (Sada Thompson, Wyman Pendleton); Oh! Calcutta!

Eudora Welty 04/13/1909 - Jul 23, 2001 writer - The Ponder Heart (David Wayne, Will Geer, Una Merkel, Juanita Hall, Sarah Marshall); The Robber Bridegroom (Kevin Kline, Patti Lupone, Nicolas Surovy)[this prodn must have been pure heaven w/both Kline & Lupone! Wish I'd seen it.)

Howard Keel 04/13/1919 - Nov 7, 2004 performer - orig. Oklahoma! [replacement]; 1957 Carousel (Barbara Cook, Marie Powers, Russell Nype, Victor Moore, Kay Medford, Bambi Linn, Pat Stanley); Saratoga; No Strings [replacement]; Ambassador (Danielle Darrieux, Andrea Marcovicci); tv's & film's Dallas, Kiss Me Kate; Rose Marie (Ann Blyth, Bert Lahr); Day of the Triffids & my fav: Callaway Went Thataway, a wonderful spoof on Westerns

Stanley Donen 04/13/1924 Choreographer, Director, Performer - orig Pal Joey; Best Foot Forward; Singin' in the Rain; The Red Shoes; o/b Adult Entertainment; tv's & film's Moonlighting; On the Town; Singin' in the Rain; 7 Brides for 7 Brothers; Deep In My Heart; Kismet; The Pajama Game; Indiscreet; Charade; 2 For The Road

Jules Irving 04/13/1925 - Jul 28, 1979 Producer, Director, Theatre Owner/Operator; father of Amy Irving, husband of Priscilla Pointer (1947 - 1979) his death - Danton's Death (Stacey Keach, James Earl Jones, Priscilla Pointer, Louis Zorich, Roscoe Lee Browne); The Condemned of Altona (George Coulouris, Robert Haswell); Yerma (Frank Langella, Nancy Marchand); The East Wind (Estelle Parsons); Galileo (Anthony Quayle); 1967 Saint Joan (Roger De Koven, Diana Sands); Cyrano de Bergerac (Blythe Danner, Robert Symonds, Suzanne Grossman); 1968 King Lear (Lee J. Cobb, Paul Rudd, Robert Stattel, Barbette Tweed); A Cry of Players (Ann Bancroft); In the Matter of J. Robert Oppenheimer (Joseph Wiseman); 1969 The Time of Your Life (James Broderick, Philip Bosco, Marcia Lewis, Biff McGuire); 1970 Camino Real (Al Pacino, Patrick McVey, Sylvia Syms, Jessica Tandy); 1970 Beggar on Horseback (Susan Watson); The Good Woman of Setzuan (Colleen Dewhurst); 1971 Antigone (Martha Henry); 1972 The Crucible (Robert Foxworth); 1972 Man of La Mancha (Richard Kiley, Joan Diener); The Plough and the Stars (Roberta Maxwell, Christopher Walken); 1973 The Merchant of Venice (Rosemary Harris, Sydney Walker); 1973 A Streetcar Named Desire (James Farentino, Rosemary Harris, Patricia Conolly)

Don Adams 04/13/1926 - 9/25/05 performer - Harold (Anthony Perkins, John Fiedler, Sudie Bond); tv's The Bill Dana Show; Get Smart; Underdog; The Partners; Inspector Gadget film series

Clive Revill 04/13/1930 performer - Mr. Pickwick (Estelle Winwood, Phillippa Bevans); Irma La Douce (Elizabeth Seal, Keith Michell, Stuart Damon, Fred Gwynne, George S. Irving, Elliott Gould); Oliver!; Sherry!; The Incomparable Max (Richard Kiley, Fionnuala Flanagan); Sherlock Holmes [replacement]; Lolita (Donald Sutherland, Blanche Baker, Ian Richardson, Shirley Stoler)

Lanford Wilson 04/13/1937 Producer, Writer, Other - The Hot l Baltimore, Angels Fall, The Fifth of July, Burn This; the Pulitzer Prize for Talley's Folly.

Paul Sorvino 04/13/1940 performer, dir. - Bajour; Mating Dance (Van Johnson, Richard Mulligan); That Championship Season; An American Millionaire (Bob Dishy); Wheelbarrow Closers (Danny Aiello); The Baker's Wife (Patti Lupone); tv's & film's Law & Order; GoodFellas; King Lear (James Earl Jones, Raul Julia); A Touch of Class

Natalie Mosco 04/13/1950 performer, writer - Hair (original); The Magic Show

Ron Perlman 04/13/1950 performer - Teibele and Her Demon (F. Murray Abraham, Laura Esterman); 1996 Bus Stop (Billy Crudup, Mary-Louis Parker, Larry Pine); film's Alien: Resurrection; Hellboy; Quest For Fire; Beauty & the Beast; Name of the Rose

Saundra Santiago 04/13/1957 performer - orig A View From the Bridge (Tony Lo Bianco); Chronicle of a Death Foretold (Tonya Pinkins); 2003 Nine; film's Beat Street; Garmento

Liz Callaway 04/13/1961 performer, sister of Ann Hampton Callaway - origs Merrily We Roll Along; Cats [replacement]; Baby; Miss Saigon; The Look of Love

SHOWS THAT OPENED ON THIS DATE:

1925 The Guild Theatre on West 52nd Street in New York, opens with a production of George Bernard Shaw's Caesar and Cleopatra. Helen Hayes stars as the young queen opposite Lionel Atwill. Designed by Howard Crane and founded by members of the Theatre Guild, it will become a radio playhouse from 1943-1950. It will be purchased by the American National Theatre and Academy (A.N.T.A.) and return to presenting live theatre. It is known today as the Virginia Theatre.

1926 Helen Hayes plays Maggie Shand, a role made famous by Maude Adams, in J.M. Barrie's What Every Woman Knows. This revival runs beyond the season, closing after 268 performances.

1933 Broadway opening night of Kurt Weill's and Bertolt Brecht's landmark The Threepenny Opera. It flops after just 12 performances, but will be revived for a phenomenal seven-year run in 1954.

1938 George Abbott produces and directs What A Life. Clifford Goldsmith's comedy concerning the goings on of a high school stars Ezra Stone as Henry Aldrich, Butterfly McQueen and Eddie Bracken. It will have a long run at the Biltmore Theatre and later be the basis for a radio show.

1957 The musical Shinbone Alley, based on the "archy and mehitabel" stories, opens a six-week run on Broadway, with lyrics by Joe Darion and book (his first for Broadway) by Mel Brooks; with Eartha Kitt (with Chita Rivera as her stand-by) played mehitabel the cat opposite leading man, Eddie Bracken, as archie the cockroach. Tom Poston stood by for archy. Also in the cast were Jacques d'Amboise, Ross Martin, Erik Rhodes, Reri Grist.

1995 David Mamet's play The Cryptogram opens at the Westside Upstairs Theatre. The play about a father who leaves his wife and son stars Ed Begley, Jr., Felicity Huffman and Shelton Dane.

2000 Michael John LaChiusa's new Broadway musical, The Wild Party, opens at the Virginia Theatre. It's the second New York musical of this season to be based on the 1928 poem by Joseph Moncure March. Composer-lyricist LaChiusa wrote the libretto with George C. Wolfe, who directs the production. Mandy Patinkin, Toni Collette and Eartha Kitt star.

2003 The beloved characters of Arnold Lobel's children's book come to life in the Broadway musical A Year With Frog and Toad, which goes on to be nominated for several Tony Awards, including Best Musical.

ON THIS DAY IN:

On April 13, 1970, Apollo 13, four-fifths of the way to the moon, was crippled when a tank containing liquid oxygen burst. (The astronauts managed to return safely.)

1964 Sidney Poitier became the first black performer in a leading role to win an Academy Award, for his role in "Lilies of the Field."

1999 Jack Kervorkian was sentenced in Pontiac, Mich., to 10 to 25 years in prison for the second-degree murder of Thomas Youk, whose assisted suicide in 1998 was videotaped and shown on "60 Minutes."

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

Milla

[InfiniteTheaterFrenzy]

Posted: 4/12/08 at 6:11pm

Happy birthday Liz Callaway!