This Week in Broadway History: March 2 - 8

This Week in Broadway History:

March 2 - 8

🎭OPENING NIGHTS🎭

Bus Stop

• March 2, 1955: The new William Inge play, Bus Stop, opens at the Music Box, and stars Kim Stanley and Elaine Stritch.
• March 2, 1995: The revue Smokey Joe's Cafe begins its 2,036 performance run at the Virginia Theatre. The original company features Brenda Braxton, B.J. Crosby and Michael Park.
• March 3, 2013: Though it was never before seen on Broadway, when Rodgers + Hamerstein's Cinderella opened, it was considered a revival. Laura Osnes, Santino Fontana, Harriet Harris and Victoria Clark starred.

The Goodbye Girl

• March 4, 1993: Bernadette Peters and Martin Short did musical comedy combat in The Goodbye Girl at the Marquis Theatre for a modest 188 performances.
• March 4, 1999: Bernadette Peters opened at the Marquis Theatre again six years later. This time, she'd win a Tony Award for her efforts. That show was Annie Get Your Gun and it ran an impressive 1,045 performances.
• March 5, 1981: Chita Rivera tried to Bring Back Birdie, but he only stuck around for 4 performances at the Martin Beck.
• March 8, 1961: One of Broadway's longest-running plays of all time, Mary, Mary opened its 1,572 performance run on this date.

🎂HAPPY BIRTHDAY🎂

     

Andy Blankenbuehler     Lilli Cooper

     

Donna Murphy     Matthew James Thomas

• March 2: actor Bobby Steggert, actor John Cullum
• March 3: Broadway's Pippin Matthew James Thomas, actor/dancer Nicole Fosse, Hamilton author Ron Chernow
• March 4: actor Lilli Cooper, actor/skater/Xanadude Marty Thomas
• March 5: Carrie composer Michael Gore, West End icon and Broadway favorite Elaine Paige
• March 6: Tony-winner Shuler Hensley, composer Stephen Schwartz
• March 7: Be More Chill's George Salazar, dancer (Fosse)/choreographer (Bandstand, Hamilton) Andy Blankenbuehler, Chicago's Ruthie Henshall, two-time Tony-winner and Broadway favorite Donna Murphy
• March 8: Spring Awakening's Camryn Manheim, acting legend Lynn Redgrave, dance legend Cyd Charisse

📆ON BROADWAY THIS WEEK IN 2012📆

As is typical for seasons in modern Broadway history, the beginning of March is one of transition, with many shows getting ready to preview. In 2012, within the next two to three weeks, nearly every theater will be open. But if you were in New York this week nine years ago, there were still plenty of things to see.

Spicy thrills can be found at the Lyceum, with Hugh Dancy and Tony-winner Nina Arianda heating things up in Venus in Fur. Verbal sparring family style is on full display in the comedy-drama Other Desert Cities with Tony-winner Judith Light, Stockard Channing and Stacy Keach delivering what they do best. Seminar, a comedy starring Alan Rickman is in the middle of its limited engagement, while Wit, with Cynthia Nixon, is playing its final performances.

If danger is your thing, you could see the trilling headline-making Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark. Musical traditionalists have their pick of shows from major composers: Cole Porter's Anything Goes is enjoying a Tony-winning revival at the Sondheim, The Gershwins' Porgy and Bess is settling into its acclaimed run at the Rodgers, and Stephen Schwartz's Godspell is rocking the Circle in the Square.

Speaking of classic composers, you could be among the first to see a preview of Andrew Lloyd Webber's Jesus Christ Superstar at the Neil Simon. Other shows in previews this week include the eventual Best Musical, Once, Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman with Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Linda Emond, Andrew Garfield and Finn Wittrock, and then there is the all-star The Best Man, with a cast of Broadway and Hollywood who's who, including Dame Angela Lansbury, James Earl Jones, Candice Bergen, John Larroquette, Michael McKean and Kerry Butler, among others.

Of course, there is always The Phantom of the Opera, The Lion King, Wicked, Rock of Ages, Mamma Mia!, Chicago...

For the very bravest: the final performances of Shatner's World: We Just Live in It.

#2508