Today's Birthdays 3/11

[do_re_milla]

Posted: 3/10/09 at 6:05pm

Dorothy Gish 03/11/1898 - Jun 4, 1968 performer, sister of Lillian Gish, wife of James Rennie (12/26/1920 - 1935) divorced - The Streets of New York, or Poverty is No Crime; Morning's at Seven (Enid Markey); The Magnificent Yankee (Louis Calhern); The Man (Peggy Ann Garner, Richard Boone); film's Orphans of the Storm; Centennial Summer (1 of the worst films ever made); Our Hearts Were Young & Gay (adorable film!)

Jessie Matthews 03/11/1907 - Aug 20, 1981 mother of Catherine Countess Grixoni (adopted); wife of Henry Lytton (1926 - 1929) divorced; Sonny Hale (1931 - 1944) divorced; Lt. Brian Lewis (1945-5 divorced; Made London vaudeville debut at 12 and West End debut at 16 in Irving Berlin's "Music Box Revue". Also in London, "Charlot Revue" (1926), performer - Andre Charlot's Revue of 1924; Wake Up and Dream (Jack Buchanan); film's Evergreen; Tom Thumb

Vinnette Carroll 03/11/1922 - Nov 5, 2002 Writer, Source Material, Director, Performer; The first African American woman to direct on Broadway, Ms. Carroll was also the founder of Urban Arts Corp which supported black and Hispanic theatres and performers. - Small War on Murray Hill (Daniel Massey, Warner LeRoy); Trumpets of the Lord (Cicely Tyson); Don't Bother Me, I Can't Cope; But Never Jam Today (Reginald Vel Johnson)

Valerie French 03/11/1932 - Nov 3, 1990 performer - Inadmissable Evidence (Nicol Williamson); The Mother Lover (Eileen Heckart, Larry Blyden); A Taste of Honey (Amanda Plummer); film's Jubal, The 27th Day

Nancy Kovack 3/11/1935 performer, wife of Zubin Mehta (19 July 1969 - present) 2 children - The Disenchanted (Rosemary Harris, Jason Robards, Jr., George Grizzard, Salome Jens); film's Diary of a Madman, Frankie and Johnny

Stephen Bogardus 03/11/1954 performer, Husband of Dana Moore - 1980 West Side Story; u/s Safe Sex (Harvey Fierstein, John Wesley Shipp); Falsettos (Barbara Walsh, Michael Rupert, Heather MacRae, Chip Zien); Love! Valour! Compassion! (John Glover, Nathan Lane); King David (Martin Vidnovic, Judy Kuhn, Alice Ripley & in the ensemble Karen Murphy & Hunter Foster); High Society; 2002 Man of La Mancha (Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Mark Jacoby); Old Acquaintance; Irving Berlin's White Christmas

John Barrowman 03/11/1968 - performer - Sunset Boulevard [replacement]; Putting It Together (George Hearn, Carol Brrnett); tv's & films 2005 The Producers; De-Lovely; Titans; Central Park West

Terrence Howard 03/11/1969 performer; Grandson of Minnie Gentry - 2008 Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (James Earl Jones, Phylicia Rashad, Anika Noni Rose, Lisa Arrindell Anderson, Giancarlo Esposito)

SHOWS THAT OPENED ON THIS DATE:

1954 The Golden Apple is the musical retelling, by John LaTouche, of the Judgement of Paris myth. It begins performances at the Phoenix Theatre and, after winning a Drama Critics' Circle Award, moves to Broadway's Alvin Theatre for 125 performances. Kaye Ballard and Jonathan Lucas lead the cast. The score is provided by Jerome Moross.

1959 Lorraine Hansberry's drama A Raisin in the Sun stars Sidney Poitier and Claudia McNeil. Exploring the intricacies of an African American family, this story is awarded the Drama Critics' Circle Award for Best American Play. Lloyd Richards directs the 530 performances at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre.

2001 A Class Act, a musical tracing the life of brilliant, tortured lyricist/composer Ed Kleban, has what Kleban himself was never able to have with a show after his A Chorus Line -- an opening night on Broadway.

ON THIS DAY IN:

1810 Emperor Napoleon of France was married by proxy to Archduchess Marie Louise of Austria.

1888 A blizzard started to roar along the northeastern Atlantic Seaboard of the U.S., shutting down communication and transportation lines. The white stuff continued to fall for three days in the “Great Blizzard of 1888,” resulting in some 400 deaths.

1930 Edward Franklin Albee (grandfather of Edward Albee), vaudeville producer and theatre owner, died today in Palm Beach, Florida. He joined B.F. Keith in the presentation of variety shows and by 1920 had a vaudeville circuit and nearly 70 houses.

1956 - Sir Lawrence Olivier starred in the three-hour afternoon NBC-TV special, Richard III. The network reportedly paid $500,000 for the rights to the program. A writer named William Shakespeare was responsible for Richard III.

1992 David Carroll, while recording the cast album for Grand Hotel, collapses and dies minutes later. The actor who had been weakening due to AIDS was once nominated for a Tony for his role in Chess. His other Broadway credits included Rodgers and Hart, Where's Charley?, Oh Brother!, 7 Brides for 7 Brothers and Wind in the Willows.

2002 Manhattan Theatre Club hosts a reading of Sex and the City-State, a musical based on the Greek classic, Lysistrata, with book by Larry Gelbart, music by Alan Menken and lyrics by David Zippel, after it was banned at the American Repertory Theatre in Cambridge, MA. ART artistic director Robert Brustein Gelbart told The Boston Globe that he pulled the plug because the script was "ferociously obscene — much more than Aristophanes."

2003 A four-day strike by Broadway pit musicians, which was supported by actors and stage hands, ends early this morning after an all-night bargaining session. Minimum numbers of musicians required at some theatres are reduced slightly.

2005 Actress Christina Applegate stumbles during the Chicago tryout of her Sweet Charity revival and breaks her foot. Producers will close the show, but at Applegate's insistence that the show must go on, reopen it with understudy Charlotte d'Amboise in the title role. Applegate will undergo weeks of intensive therapy and miraculously return to the production in time for its May 4 Broadway opening.

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

Milla