Today's Birthdays 6/30

[do_re_milla]

Posted: 6/29/08 at 6:11pm

John Gay 06/30/1685 - Dec 4, 1732 Writer, Lyricist, Composer, Source Material - The Beggar's Opera; Polly; The Beggar's Opera; Threepenny Opera (Burgess Meredith); 1946 Beggar's Holiday (Alfred Drake, Zero Mostel, Herbert Ross); 1973 The Beggar's Opera (Kevin Kline, Patti LuPone);Diversions and Delights (Vincent Price)

Glenda Farrell 06/30/1904 - May 1, 1971 performer - Love, Honor and Betray (Alice Brady, Geo. Brent, Clark Gable); The Life of Reilly; Forty Carats; film's Torchy Blane film series; Little Cesar; I Am a Fugitive From a Chain Gang; Adventurous Blonde

Susan Hayward 6/30/1917 - Mar 14, 1975 performer - Academy Award-winning actress: I Want to Live [1958], I’ll Cry Tomorrow, Valley of the Dolls; I Can Get It for You Wholesale; Garden of Evil; The President's Lady; Untamed (Tyrone Power); Soldier of Fortune

Lena Horne 06/30/1917 performer - Dance With Your Gods (Rex Ingram); Lew Leslie's Blackbirds of 1939; Jamaica (Ricardo Montalban, Adalaide Hall); Tony & Lena Sing; Lena Horne: "The Lady and Her Music"; film's The Wiz; Cabin in the Sky; Stormy Weather

Lee Krieger 06/30/1919 - Dec 22, 1967 performer - origs: Mr. Roberts (Henry Fonda, David Wayne, Steven Hill); Along Fifth Avenue (Nancy Walker, Jackie Gleason, Carol Bruce); All You Need Is One Good Break (Lee Grant, Gene Saks); The Pink Elephant (Steve Allen); Redhead (Gwen Verson, Richard Kiley, Margery Beddow, Ken Richards, Pat Ferrier); Viva Madison Avenue! (Jan Miner, Frances Sternhagen)

James Goldman 06/30/1927 - Oct 28, 1998 writer, performer; Brother of William Goldman - Blood, Sweat and Stanley Poole; A Family Affair; The Lion in Winter; Follies; Sondheim: A Musical Tribute

Clifford David 06/30/1932 performer - 1993 Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat; origs: Nine; 1776; A Joyful Noise (Karen Morrow, John Raitt, Swen Swenson, Tommy Tune, Susan Watson); On a Clear Day You Can See Forever (John Cullum, Barbara Harris, Ken Richards, Rita Golden); The Aspern Papers (Wendy Hiller, Maurice Evans); Wildcat (Lucille Ball, Valerie Harper, Swen Swenson); Caligula (Colleen Dewhurst, Kenneth Haigh)

Harry Blackstone, Jr. 06/30/1934 - May 14, 1997 performer; Son of The Great Blackstone - Blackstone!; The Boys Choir of Harlem and Friends

Nancy Dussault 6/30/1936 performer - orig The Sound of Music [replacement]; Do Re Mi; Bajour (Herschel Bernardi, Chita Rivera, Paul Sorvino); tv's Too Close for Comfort, The Ted Knight Show; co-host: Good Morning America

Nicolas Surovy 06/30/1944 performer; Son of Risë Stevens & Walter Szurovy; Nicolas attended Juilliard, paid for with the G.I. Bill after he completed a tour of duty in Vietnam. In 1984, he performed in "You Can't Take It With You" on Broadway, with Jason Robards and Colleen Dewhurst, while playing Mike Roy on ABC's daytime serial All My Children, a role to which he returned in March of 1998 for six months. - The Robber Bridegroom (Patti LuPone, Kevin Kline); The Merchant; The Crucifer of Blood (Paxton Whitehead, Glenn Close); 1988 The Night of the Iguana (Jane Alexander, Pamela Payton-Wright)

David Garrison 06/30/1952 performer - Wicked; 2001 Bells Are Ringing (Marc Kudisch, Faith Prince, Beth Fowler); Titanic; 1981 The Pirates of Penzance (Kevin Kline, Estelle Parsons, Linda Ronstadt, George Rose, Rex Smith); A Day in Hollywood / A Night in the Ukraine (Priscilla Lopez); A History of the American Film

David Alan Grier 06/30/1955 performer - The First (Steven Boockvor, Bill Buell, Kim Criswell, Lonette McKee, Trey Wilson); Dreamgirls [replacement]; 1996 A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum [replacement]; The Mambo Kings

Vincent D’Onofrio 6/30/1959 performer; Husband of Greta Scacchi (1991 - 1993) divorced; 1 daughter (Leila, born March 1992); Carin Van der Donk (1997 - 2003) divorced; 1 son (Elias, born in 2000) - Open Admissions; film's & tv's Law & Order: Criminal Intent; Mystic Pizza; Ed Wood; The Newton Boys; The Thirteenth Floor; The Cell; Full Metal Jacket; Adventures in Babysitting; Dying Young; Naked Tango; Fires Within; The Player; Household Saints; Being Human

Rupert Graves 6/30/1963 performer; Husband of Susie Lewis - Closer (Natasha Richardson); 2002 Elephant Man; film's The Madness of King George, Damage, Maurice, A Room with a View, Doomsday Gun, Mrs. Dalloway, V for Vendetta; The Waiting Room; Midnight Man; Miss Marple: A Pocketful of Rye; God on Trial

SHOWS THAT OPENED ON THIS DATE:

1924 Opening night of George White's Scandals of 1924, which features a score by George Gershwin, including "Somebody Loves Me." It will run 192 performances at the Apollo Theatre.

1970 The midpoint between heaven and earth is a Steambath, according to Bruce Jay Friedman's new comedy, opening today at the Truck and Warehouse Theatre. Anthony Perkins stars in and directs this production, which also features Hector Elizondo as a bath attendant who turns out to be God. Steambath will run for 127 performances.

2000 The Roundabout Theatre Company production of The Man Who Came to Dinner starts previews tonight, marking the first performance at Roundabout's new American Airlines Theatre on Broadway. The venue, formerly the Selwyn Theatre, underwent a reported $25 million renovation before housing the revival of the Moss Hart and George S. Kaufman play, starring Nathan Lane.

ON THIS DAY IN:

1936 The novel "Gone with the Wind" by Margaret Mitchell was published.

1984 Playwright Lillian Hellman dies today at age 79. Hellman made her Broadway writing debut with 1934's controversial lesbian drama, The Children's Hour. Other Hellman plays include 1939's The Little Foxes and 1945's The Searching Wind.

1985 - Yul Brynner left his role as the King of Siam after 4,600 performances in The King and I at the Broadway Theatre in New York City. The show had run -- on and off -- for over 34 years.

On June 30, 1997, in Hong Kong, the Union Jack was lowered for the last time over Government House as Britain prepared to hand the colony back to China after ruling it for 156 years.

2003 Hundreds converge on the Richard Rodgers Theatre to say farewell to Tony- and Oscar-winning librettist/screenwriter Peter Stone (1776, Titanic, The Will Rogers Follies, My One and Only, Woman of the Year and many other shows), who died April 26 at age 73. Among speakers: Lauren Bacall, Maury Yeston, John Kander and Fred Ebb.

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

Milla