Today's Birthdays 4/25

[do_re_milla]

Posted: 4/24/08 at 2:10pm

Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky 04/25/1840 - Oct 25, 1893 composer, source mat'l - Music in My Heart (Jack Cassidy, Vivienne Segal); Nureyev and Friends; Eugene Onegin; Thoroughly Modern Millie

Ella Fitzgerald 04/25/1918 - Jun 15, 1996 composer, performer - Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, and Count Basie; Uptown...It's Hot!

Paul Mazursky 4/25/1930 director - film's Harry and Tonto, An Unmarried Woman, Scenes from a Mall, The Pickle, Moscow on the Hudson, Down and Out in Beverly Hills, Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice, The Tempest, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Cattle Call

Jerry Leiber 04/25/1933 lyricist, composer; Husband of Gaby Rodgers - Dancin'; Smokey Joe's Cafe; Ring of Fire

Al Pacino 04/25/1940 performer - Does a Tiger Wear a Necktie? (Sam Watson, Hal Holbrook); 1970 Camino Real; 1977 The Basic Training of Pavlo Hummel; 1979 King Richard III; 1983 American Buffalo (James Hayden, J.J. Johnston); 1992 Chinese Coffee; 1992 & 2003 Salome; 1996 Hughie; film's 88 Minutes; Ocean's 13; Rififi; Academy Award-winning actor: Scent of a Woman [1992]; Scarface, Serpico, The Godfather, Dick Tracy [Tony Award-winning actor: Does a Tiger Wear a Necktie [1969], The Basic Training of Pavlo Hummel [1977]]

Talia Shire 04/25/1946 performer, niece of Anton Coppola,sister of Francis Ford Coppola, wife of Jack Schwartzman (? - 1994) his death, David Shire (divorced) - Golden Child; film's Godfather series; Rocky series; For Richer, For Poorer; A Century of Women; Blood Vows; Homo Erectus

Jeffrey DeMunn 04/25/1947 performer - Comedians; K2; Sleight of Hand; Spoils of War; The Price (Bob Dishy, Lizbeth MacKay); 2002 Our Town (Jayne Atkinson, Frank Converse, Paul Newman, Jake Robards, Stephen Spinella); tv's & film's Ragtime, Frances, The Shawshank Redemption, Rocket Man, The X Files, The Green Mile

Hank Azaria 04/25/1964 performer; Husband of Helen Hunt (1999 - 2000) divorced - The Farnsworth Invention [ejoyed this show a lot]; Spamalot (Tim Curry, Michael McGrath, David Hyde Pierce, Sara Ramirez, Christopher Sieber); tv's & film's The Simpsons; The Birdcage; Godzilla; Tuesdays with Morrie; Quiz Show; If Not For You

James Barbour 04/25/1966 performer - 2004 Assassins (Marc Kudisch, David O'Hare, Mario Cantone, Michael Cerversi, Mary Catherine Garrison, Neil Patrick Harris, Alexander Gemignani); Cyrano - The Musical; Jane Eyre; tv's & film's Cyrano - The Musical; Houdini; Eight Crazy Nights

Renée Zellweger 4/25/1969 performer - film's Nurse Betty; Bridget Jones's Series; Jerry Maguire; White Oleander; Chicago; Down With Love; Cold Mountain; Cinderella Man (Russell Crowe, Craig Bierko); Piece of My Heart [as Janice Joplin!]; Miss Potter; Case 39

SHOWS THAT OPENED ON THIS DATE:

1927 When a woman loves sailors so much she follows them all around the world, it's time to Hit the Deck. Vincent Youmans provides the score for Herbert Fields' book adapted from the play Shore Leave. The show will sail through 352 performances.

1929 Patrick Hamilton's drama Rope stars Brian Aherne and Anthony Ireland as two Oxford roommates killing a boy for thrills. Reginald Denham directs at London's Ambassadors' Theatre. Years later, Alfred Hitchcock uses this script as the basis for his film of the same name.

1967 Little Murders happen at Broadway's Broadhurst Theatre. Jules Feiffer's black comedy about apathetic responses to violence will have a little run of seven performances. The cast includes Barbara Cook, Elliot Gould, Heywood Hale Broun and Ruth White.

Cyrano de Bergerac with Blythe Danner, Nancy Marchand, Philip Bosco, Roger De Koven, Suzanne Grossman and Robert Symonds as Cyrano. Anyone see this? Was it heavenly?

1985 - Big River (The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn) opened at the Eugene O’Neill Theatre on Broadway in New York City. The Tony Award-winning score for the show was written by Roger Miller (his first Broadway production). Daniel H. Jenkins stars as Huck Finn; joining him are Ron Richardson, John Goodman, Bob Gunton, Reathel Bean and Rene Auberjonois. The show, about life on the Mississippi, with Daniel Jenkins in the starring role of Huck Finn, ran for 1,005 performances and won the Tony for Best Musical of the Year. Big River picked up several more Tony Awards: Featured Actor in a Musical to Ron Richardson; Best Director (Musical) to Des McAnuff; Best Book (Musical) to William Hauptman; and Best Scenic Designer and Lighting Designer to Heidi Landesman and Richard Riddell respectively.

1991 Lucy Simon and Marsha Norman's musical adaptation of Frances Hodgson Burnett's classic 1911 novel, The Secret Garden, opens on Broadway at the St. James Theatre. Susan H. Schulman directs a cast that includes Rebecca Luker and Daisy Eagan.

1993 Blood Brothers with Stephanie Lawrence, Con O'Neill [debut], Jan Graveson, Barbara Walsh, Kerry Butler [debut], James Clow. Loooooved this show!

1995 A Month in the Country with Helen Mirren, F. Murray Abraham, Ron Rifkin [Lordy, I wish I'd seen this!]

1999 That's The Gershwins' Fascinating Rhythm you hear. Brothers George and Ira's music and lyrics highlight this revue opened tonight at the Longacre Theatre on Broadway. Mark Lamos stages and co-conceived the project with Mel Marvin. David Marques supplies the choreography. Members of the cast include Michael Berresse, Adriane Lenox, and Orfeh. Although the show will run for only 17 performances, producer Manny Kladitis remained proud to of "brought an unbeatable score to Broadway."

2002 The Mystery of Charles Dickens with Simon Callow

ON THIS DAY IN:

1792 Highwayman Nicolas Jacques Pelletier became the first person under French law to be executed by guillotine.

1915 Allied soldiers invaded the Gallipoli Peninsula in an unsuccessful attempt to take the Ottoman Turkish Empire out of World War I.

1928 - Buddy, the first seeing eye dog, was presented to Morris S. Frank on this day. Many seeing eye organizations and schools continue to offer specially trained dogs “...to enhance the independence, dignity, and self-confidence of blind people...”

On April 25, 1945, during World War II, United States and Soviet forces linked up on the Elbe River, in central Europe, a meeting that dramatized the collapse of Nazi Germany.

1995 Actress Ginger Rogers died in Rancho Mirage, Calif., at age 83.

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

Milla