Today's Birthdays 11/16

[do_re_milla]

Posted: 11/13/08 at 8:23pm

George S. Kaufman 11/16/1889 - 6/2/1961 Producer, Writer, Source Material, Director, Performer, Theatre Owner/Operator - A former newsman, Kaufman will make his mark with the comedy Dulcy in 1921, and will go on to write dozens of comedies, dramas and musicals, at a clip of two or three a year until the 1940s, often in collaboration with the likes of Moss Hart and Edna Ferber. He will win the Pulitzer Prize twice, for his work on Of Thee I Sing and You Can't Take It With You, and will win his only Tony Award for directing the original Guys and Dolls. His plays include The Cocoanuts and Animal Crackers (both for the Marx Brothers), Merton of the Movies, The Royal Family, I'd Rather Be Right, Once in a Lifetime, Dinner at Eight, Merrily We Roll Along and The Man Who Came to Dinner

Lawrence Tibbett 11/16/1896 - 7/15/1960 one of the all-time great baritons, performer - 1923 King Lear (Genevieve Tobin, Moffat Johnston, Reginald Pole); replacement in orig The Man Who Came to Dinner; Miracle in the Mountains; The Barrier (Reri Gristi); Fanny [replaced Pinza]

Burgess Meredith 11/16/1907 - 9/9/1997 Husband of Paulette Goddard (1944 - 1950) divorced, Producer, Director, Performer - 1930 Romeo & Juliet (Robert Lewis); The Barretts of Wimpole Street (Katherine Cornell, Brian Ahern); Winterset; 1946 The Playboy of the Western World (Julie Harris, Maureen Stapleton); Major Barbara (Glynnis Johns, Charles Laughton, Cornelia Otis Skinner, Eli Wallach, John Astin); Ulysses in Nighttown. Emmy Award-winning actor: The Big Event: Tail Gunner Joe [2-6-77], Gloria, Mr. Novak, Search, The Day of the Locust, Advice and Consent, Grumpy Old Men, In Harm’s Way, Of Mice and Men; TV host: Those Amazing Animals; author: So Far, So Good a Memoir; long Broadway career included original productions of Liliom, High Tor, Winterset, The Barretts of Wimpole Street and The Remarkable Mr. Pennypacker. He created two memorable screen roles as well: the umbrella-wielding villain The Penguin in TV's "Batman," and the hard-bitten boxing coach who literally eggs Sylvester Stallone on to glory in Rocky.

Peter Viertel 11/16/1920 - 11/4/2007 husband of Deborah Kerr (23 July 1960 - 16 October 2007) (her death); writer White Hunter, Black Heart; tv's & film's White Hunter, Black Heart; Saboteur; Decision Before Dawn; The African Queen; The Sun Also Rises; The Old Man & the Sea

Guy Stockwell 11/16/1934 - 2/6/2002 performer; brother of actor Dean Stockwell - tv's & film's The Richard Boone Show, Beau Geste, Return to Peyton Place, Airport 1975, Columbo: Columbo Goes to College

Clu Gulager 11/16/1935 performer; Started out in experimental theatre in Paris under the guidance of actor Jean-Louis Barrault; Clu (the nickname means "Red Bird") is part Cherokee, and is Will Rogers's cousin. - tv's & film's Feast; Vic; The Killing Device, My Heroes Have Always Been Cowboys, I’m Gonna Git You Sucka, Return of the Living Dead, A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge, Kenny Rogers as the Gambler series, Force of One, The Other Side of Midnight, Smile Jenny You’re Dead, The Last Picture Show, The Killers, The Virginian, The Tall Man, The Survivors, San Francisco International Airport; Feast; Vic

Donna McKechnie 11/16/1942 performer; Wife of Michael Bennett (1976 - 1977) divorced - How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying (Robert Morse, Rudy Vallee, Charles Nelson Reilly); The Education of H*Y*M*A*N K*A*P*L*A*N (Tom Bosley, Dick Latessa, Hal Linden [Bosley's u/s); Promises, Promises (Jerry Orbach, Jill O'Hara, Graciela Daniele); Company (Dean Jones, Barbara Barrie, Merle Louise, Charles Braswell, Susan Browning, John Cunningham, Steve Elmore, Pamela Myers, Beth Howland, Charles Kimbrough, Teri Ralston, Elaine Stritch, Larry Kert [u/s]); 1971 On The Town; A Chorus Line (Pamela Blair, Wayne Cilento, Baayork Lee, Priscilla Lopez, Robert LuPone, Thomas J. Walsh, Michel Stuart); State Fair (Kathryn Crosby, John Davidson, Andrea McArdle, Charles Goff)

Joanna Pettet [Joanna Jane Salmon] 11/16/1942 performer; married to Alex Cord (1968 - 1989) (divorced) 1 child - The Chinese Prime Minister (Margaret Leighton, James Olson); Poor Richard; tv's & film's The Doctors; The Group; Robbery; Casino Royale; Captains and the Kings

Marg Helgenberger 11/16/1958 performer - C.S.I.: Crime Scene Investigation, Ryan’s Hope, China Beach, Fire Down Below, Gold Coast, Perfect Murder, Perfect Town; Columbus Day

Michele Pawk 11/16/1961 performer, wife of Kevin McCollum (divorced), wife of John Dossett (? - present) - Mail (Mary Bond Davis, Brian Mitchell [not yet Stokes]); Crazy For You; 1998 Cabaret; Seussical; Hollywood Arms; Losing Louie; tv's & film's Shattered Dreams; The Girl in the Watermelon; Cradle Will Rock

Martha Plimpton 11/16/1970 performer; Daughter of Keith Carradine & Shelley Plimpton - Sixteen Wounded; Shining City; The Coast of Utopia [Parts 1, 2 & 3]; Cymbaline; Top Girls, Pal Joey; tv's & film's Dante's Inferno; ER; Marvelous, Law & Order;Music from Another Room; I'm Not Rappaport; Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle; Samantha; Stanley & Iris; The Mosquito Coast; The Goonies

Kimberly Jean Brown 11/16/1985 performer; Set a record at age nine as the youngest actress to appear in three Broadway Shows: Four Baboons Adoring the Sun, Les Miz, and Showboat. - Four Baboons Adoring the Sun (Stockard Channing, James Naughton); 1994 Show Boat; tv's & film's The Guiding Light; Ellen Foster; Be Cool

Skip Kennon 11/16/?? composer, lyricist, teacher - Composer: Herringbone - 1982 Playwrights Horizons (David Rounds), 1992 American Music Theater Festival, 1993 Hartford Stage (Joel Grey), 2007 Williamstown & 2008 McCarter (B.D. Wong); Afternoon Tea - 2005 INTAR (Ed Harris, Amy Madigan), 2007 59E59 (John Hickok, Ann Talman). Composer-lyricist: Time and Again - 1996 Old Globe Theater (Howard McGillin, Rebecca Luker, Jessica Molaskey, KT Sullivan, Danny Burstein, William Parry, Joseph Kolinski), 2001 Manhattan Theatre Club (Laura Benanti, Julia Murney, David McCallum, Lewis Cleale, Joseph Kolinski): Disney's video; Hunchback of Notre Dame Part II (2002 - songs sung by Tom Hulce, Charles Kimbrough, Jason Alexander, Haley Joel Osment); The Last Starfighter (Storm Theatre; original cast album on Kritzerland label 2005; NYMF at Theater at St. Clements 2007); Plaisir D'Amour - 2008 (Stephanie D'Abruzzo, Jonathan Kaplan). Moderated first year of BMI-Lehman Engel MusicalTheatre workshop for twenty years.

SHOWS THAT OPENED ON THIS DATE:

1922 A revival of Hamlet opens tonight at the Sam Harris Theatre. John Barrymore in the title role is "the new and lasting Hamlet," says The New York Times. This show, which was produced and directed by Arthur Hopkins with sets by Robert Edmond Jones, will run 101 performances.

1931 Lunt and Fontanne have one of their greatest successes in The Theatre Guild's production of Robert E. Sherwood's romantic comedy Reunion in Vienna. The story of former royals now forced to work as cab drivers and such, runs 264 performances in the depths of the Depression at the Martin Beck Theatre, and goes on a European tour.

1935 Jumbo lumbers into the transformed Hippodrome. Billy Rose paid $340,000 for a circus motif and live acts to fill the stage. Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur write the book, Rodgers and Hart the lyrics and music, Jimmy Durante stars, yet the 233 performances pay back only half the investment. Durante delivers one of his most memorable lines. When police catch the big-nosed comic trying to smuggle the title character out of the circus, they demand to know where he thinks he's going with the elephant. Durante plants himself in front of the huge pachyderm and innocently replies, "What elephant?"

1944 Sadie Thompson with June Havoc and Lansing Hatfield

1959 The hills of the theatre district are alive with The Sound of Music tonight, as the musical opens at the Lunt Fontanne Theatre. Mary Martin and Theodore Bikel star in this Rodgers and Hammerstein classic, with book by Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse. The story follows the Von Trapp family and the appearance of their new governess, who helps the family gain courage in a time of insurmountable challenges. The show will run a whopping 1,443 performances and include the classics "Do-Re-Mi," "My Favorite Things" and "Edelweiss." This original production ties for the 1960 Best Musical Tony Award (with Fiorello!. A movie would be made in 1965 starring Julie Andrews and a 1998 mounting will again get nominated for the Tony Award, this time for Best Revival.

1968 Opening night of Zorba, Kander & Ebb's musical adaptation of "Zorba the Greek." Onetime Fiddler on the Roof leads Herschel Bernardi and Maria Karnilova reteam for the musical, which 305 performances at the Imperial Theatre.

1981 Merrily We Roll Along. Nice touch that it opened on George S. Kaufman's birthday with Lonny Price, Jim Walton, Tonya Pinkins, Daisy Prince, Giancarlo Esposito, Liz Callaway, Jason Alexander, Ann Morrison & Donna Marie Elio

1990 A revival of Gypsy, starring Tyne Daly as Mama Rose, opens at the St. James Theatre. The show, which co-starred Crista Moore, was Frank Rich of the New York Times' favorite musical, so a review from him included the words "goose bump-raising torrents of laughter and tears." Other critics were lukewarm, but the show ran for 476 performances, plus 105 more in a return engagement at the Marquis Theatre.

1999 Tango Argentino

2006 Mary Poppins

ON THIS DATE IN:

1864 Union Gen. William T. Sherman and his troops began their "March to the Sea" during the Civil War.

1908 - Conductor Arturo Toscanini made his debut in the United States this day. He appeared at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York, conducting Aida.

1960 - The famed actor of the silver screen, Clark Gable, died at the age of 59. Gable, who played Rhett Butler in Gone with the Wind and starred in so many other classic films, succumbed to a heart attack at 10:50 p.m. in Hollywood Presbyterian Hospital.

1966 Dr. Samuel H. Sheppard was acquitted in his second trial of charges he had murdered his pregnant wife, Marilyn, in 1954. source mat'l

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

Milla