This Week in Broadway History:
May 25 - 31
🎭OPENING NIGHTS🎭
May 25, 2016: Cirque du Soleil came to Broadway with Paramour on this date at the Lyric Theatre, where it stayed for 366 performances.
May 26, 1964: Carol Burnett starred in Fade Out - Fade In at the Mark Hellinger Theatre. The Comden and Green musical played 271 performances.
May 28, 1953: Is this the least known Rodgers and Hammerstein musical of them all? Me and Juliet opened for a 358 performance run at the Majestic Theatre,
May 31, 2018: The 2019 Tony-winning Best Revival of a Play, The Boys in the Band, opened its limited engagement at the Booth Theatre.
🎂HAPPY BIRTHDAY🎂
May 25: Actor Sir Ian McKellen, "June Is Bustin' Out All Over" singer/actor Leslie Uggams
May 26: Actor (and the original Sandy in Grease) Carole Demas, The Band's Visit's Adam Kantor
May 27: Actor Louis Gossett, Jr., Phantom's Jeremy Stolle
May 28: Actor Kristine Nielson, actor Justin Kirk
Adam Kantor Young Jean Lee
Sir Ian McKellen Tonya Pinkins
May 30: Actor/activist Tonya Pinkins, Tony-winner Idina Menzel, playwright Young Jean Lee
May 31: Choreographer Anthony Van Laast, and actors Brooke Shields, Merle Dandridge, Matt Cavenaugh and Phillipa Soo
📆ON BROADWAY THIS WEEK IN 1976📆
There were two huge musical hits on Broadway this week in 1976, and both were approaching their first birthday. Neither were showing any sign of slowing down at this point. One was at the 46th Street Theatre, the
Bob Fosse-Gwen Verdon-Chita Rivera-Kander-Ebb razzle-dazzler,
Chicago. The other, that one singular sensation at the Shubert Theatre, the
Michael Bennett-Marvin Hamlisch musical that brought the ensemblists to the front of the stage,
A Chorus Line, the
Hamilton of its time. And it just won 9 Tony Awards and the Pulitzer Prize! Tickets to both were tough to get.
Of course, they weren't the only shows playing. There was also the provocative and challenging
Pacific Overtures by Broadway dream team
Stephen Sondheim and
Harold Prince. at the Winter Garden. The ANTA Playhouse (we know it as the August Wilson) was home to the hit musical revue,
Bubbling Brown Sugar. Flop lovers (like me) would probably be rushing to the Lunt-Fontanne to catch the final week of
Rex. Revival fans would be found at either the Vivian Beaumont or the St. James. The former was home to the legendary revival of
Threepenny Opera starring
Raul Julia and
Ellen Greene; the latter, home to
My Fair Lady starring
Christine Andreas, Ian Richardson, and recent Tony-winner,
George Rose.
It was not a great year for plays. Of the four Tony nominees for Best Play, for example, only one was still playing at this time,
Knock Knock. But here's the kicker: the play closed last week for re-casting, so you couldn't see it if you wanted to! You can't even blame it on a post-Tonys purge. All three of the others, including Best Play winner,
Travesties were closed months before.
#2563
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