Playbill Vault’s Today in Theater History: October 27

1920 birthday of Nanette Fabray, Broadway Musical Star High buttoned shoes, Love life (Tony Award), The arms and the girl, and Mister President.

1925 birthday of Jane Connell, star of chic 1950s magazines with her husband, Gordon connell; later a reliable and beloved character actor in Broadway musicals, including Mamé (like Agnès Gooch), Dear world, Me and my daughter, and Crazy of you.

1952 The first (and unsuccessful) attempt to spin Giuseppe Verdi Aida in a Broadway musical. Called My darling Aida, the production is managed by Charles Friedman, who also provided the lyrics for Verdi’s music. The show features 89 performances at the Winter Garden. A more successful adaptation came in 2000.

1954 Kim stanley gets his first star in Horton footethe drama, The traveling lady, when it opened at the Playhouse Theater.

1962 The opening of the British revue at the John Golden Theater is definitely Beyond the margin. It manages 673 performances and stars Dudley Moore, Pierre Cook, Jonathan miller, and Alan bennett, operating on the outskirts of all things normal and narrow.

1964 Robert preston returns to Broadway in the title role of Ben Franklin in Paris, with a note of Mark Sandrich, Jr. and Sidney michaels. It offers 215 performances at the Lunt-Fontanne Theater.

1992 Jean Leguizamosecond major solo exhibition of, Spic-O-Rama, opens at the Westside Theater. His first show, Mambo Mouth, opened in 1991 and won it an Obie Award. The new show, in which he watches his family from a childhood perspective, features 80 performances.

1995 Public theater is the host of a show that tells African-American history through a tap dance revue. George C. Wolfe directed Bring ‘Da Noise, Bring’ Da Funk in its pre-Broadway downtown, at the Public’s Newman Theater. The show, designed and choreographed by “tap kid” Savion Glover, moved to the Ambassador Theater on Broadway in April 1996, where it won a Tony Award for Best Choreography and was nominated for Best Musical.

2005 The producers co-stars Nathan Way and Matthew Broderick reform the team for a renewal of Daniel Simon‘s The strange couple, which sells its limited series and an expansion.

2011 David Henry Hwang‘s Chinglish, a comedy about an Ohio businessman selling his wares to China – where there is a mutual misunderstanding of business language and etiquette – opens on Broadway at the Longacre Theater. The play, performed in English and Mandarin (with English surtitles projected), features Jennifer lim and Gary Wilmes.

2013 Daniel craig, Rachel weisz, and Rafe Spall starring in a Broadway cover of Harold pinter‘s Treason, opening at the Ethel Barrymore Theater. Mike Nichols leads the limited 14 week engagement.

2015 Annaleigh Ashford returns to Broadway as candid dog in AR Gurney comedy Sylvie, opening at the Cort Theater. The cast also includes Matthew Broderick, Julie White and Robert Sella. It lasts 79 performances.

2016 A Broadway cover of William Finn and James Lapine’s musical Falsettos opens at the Walter Kerr Theater. Christian Borle, Stephanie J. Block and Andrew Rannells star in the production directed by Lapine, who also directed the series’ first edition on Broadway in 1992.

2019 Belle — The Carole King Musical, which opened on Broadway on January 12, 2014, is playing its last performance at the Stephen Sondheim Theater. At the close, the musical retracing the success of singer-songwriter Carole King performed 60 previews and 2,418 regular performances, exceeding the original production of Annie and the relaunch in 1998 of Cabaret to become the 27th longest-running musical in Broadway history.

More birthdays today: Dylan thomas (1914-1953). Ruby dee (1922-2014). John cleese (born in 1939). Elena roger (born 1974). Allie Trimm (born 1994).

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Revisit the 2016 Revival of Falsettos on Broadway