This Week in Broadway History: February 9 - 15

This Week in 

Broadway History:

February 9 - 15

🎭OPENING NIGHTS🎭

Chita Rivera (center) in The Rink

• February 9, 1984: Chita Rivera and Liza Minnelli open in The Rink at the Martin Beck Theatre. Rivera won her first Tony for her role, and the show would play 204 performances.
• February 10, 1949: The Tony and Pulitzer Prize-winning Death of a Salesman debuts at the Morosco Theatre.
• February 11, 1979: The Neil Simon/Marvin Hamlisch musical They're Playing Our Song opens at the Imperial Theatre, starring Robert Klein and Lucie Arnaz. The show will play 1,082 performances.

Lynne Redgrave and Michael Crawford in Black Comedy

• February 12, 1967: Michael Crawford makes his Broadway debut in Black Comedy, co-starring Lynne Redgrave, who is also making her Broadway debut.

• February 13, 1992: The Lincoln Center revival of The Most Happy Fella, famous for its two pianos only orchestra, opens at the Booth Theatre where it will run for 229 performances.
• February 14, 1972: The Burger Palace Boys and the Pink Ladies begin their reign over Broadway, when Grease opens and sticks around for a record-breaking 3,388 performances.
• February 14, 1995: 1995's Best Play, Love! Valour! Compassion! opens at the Walter Kerr where it plays 248 performances.
• February 15, 1939: Lillian Hellman's now-classic The Little Foxes opens, starring Tallulah Bankhead, and running 410 performances.

📰BROADWAY HEADLINES📰

• February 10, 2005: Playwright Arthur Miller passes away at age 89.
• February 10, 2008: The cast recording of Spring Awakening wins the Grammy Award.
• February 11, 1921: 100 years ago, The Ambassador Theatre (current home of Chicago) opens.
• February 11, 2018: Beloved actress and 5-time Tony Award nominee Jan Maxwell passes away at age 61.
• February 13, 1996: The future cultural phenomenon Rent opens off-Broadway at the New York Theatre Workshop.
• February 13, 2003: The New York City Council bans cell phones in off-Broadway and Broadway theaters, imposing a $50 fine and expulsion from the venue for offenders. It hasn't worked out so far.
• February 15, 1984: Broadway legend Ethel Merman passes away age 76.
• February 15, 1998: BC/EFA holds its first Broadway Bears auction.

Uzo Aduba               Aaron J. Albano

Montego Glover               Bill T. Jones

🎂HAPPY BIRTHDAY🎂

• February 9: composer/actor Carole King, Dreamgirls/Side Show composer Henry Krieger, two-time Tony-winning actor Judith Light, actor Montego Glover, actor Tom Hiddleston
• February 10: actor Uzo Aduba, director Kenny Leon, actor/composer Peter Allen
• February 11: actor/dancer and Newsie Aaron J. Albano, actor/dancer Curtis Holbrook
• February 13: actor and Tony-winner Stockard Channing
• February 14: actor/dancer Gregory Hines, singer/actor Renee Fleming
• February 15: actor Jane Seymour, Tony-winning choreographer Bill. T. Jones

📆ON BROADWAY THIS WEEK IN 1979📆

The biggest hits on Broadway this week were mostly holdovers from previous seasons, including A Chorus Line at the Shubert, Dancin' at the Broadhurst, last season's Best Musical,  Ain't Misbehavin' at and Annie at the Alvin. Another holdover packing them in is Beatlemania, a show that never officially opened, but managed to run 1,006 performance. A new show with a tough ticket is the recently opened The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas at the 46th Street Theatre.

All the big plays of the season were yet to open, but if drama is your thing, you might be able to snag a ticket to last season's Dracula at the Martin Beck. Laughs and screams aplenty are available, if you can even get a ticket for Deathtrap at the Music Box. And if comedy is more your thing, Neil Simon's Chapter Two at the Eugene O'Neill.

Speaking of Simon, you could be a first-nighter at the Imperial, where his soon-to-be-a-hit musical, They're Playing Our Song opens. Then there is this curiosity beginning its second week of previews at the Uris... Hal Prince/Stephen Sondheim's musical thriller, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street...

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