Today's Birthdays - 5/2

[do_re_milla]

Posted: 5/1/09 at 4:19pm

Catherine II 5/2/1729 - 11/17/1796 German-born empress of Russia (1762-96), source mat'l

Tyrone Power, Sr. 05/02/1869 - Dec 23, 1931 performer; father of Tyrone Power, Jr. - 1922 The Rivals [prod'd by The Players Club](Pedro De Cordoba); 1922 Hamlet (John Barrymore); 1927 Julius Caesar (Harry Davenport, Basil Rathbone)

Hedda Hopper 05/02/1885 - 2/1/66 gossip columnist; wife of DeWolf Hopper (1913 - 1922) divorced, mother of William Hopper - The Pied Piper (DeWolf Hopper); Divided By Three (Judith Anderson, James Stewart); film's Alice Adama; The Women; Midnight

Vernon Castle 05/02/1887 - Feb 15, 1918 performer, husband of Irene Castle - About Town; The Girl Behind the Counter (Irene Castle); The Summer Widowers (Lew Fields); The Hen-Pecks (Blossom Seeley)

Lorenz Hart 05/02/1895 - Nov 22, 1943 Producer, Writer, Composer, & for my tastes & of 1 all time great Lyricists; Brother of Teddy Hart - Poor Little Ritz Girl; Garrick Gaieties; A Connecticut Yankee; Jumbo; On Your Toes; Babes in Arms; I Married an Angel; The Boys from Syracuse; Too Many Girls; Pal Joey; By Jupiter

Brian Aherne 05/02/1902 - 2/10/1986 performer; brother of Patrick Aherne, husband of Joan Fontaine (1939 - 1945) divorced - The Barretts of Wimpole Street; Lucrece (Katharine Cornell); 1934 Romeo and Juliet (Orson Wells); 1936 Saint Joan (Tyron Power, Jr.); The French Touch (Arlene Francis); Escapade (Carroll Baker); Dear Liar (Katharine Cornell); film's A Night to Remember, Titanic, The Best of Everything, The Waltz King

Bing Crosby 05/02/1904 - Oct 14, 1977 performer - Brother of Bob Crosby, husband of Dixie Lee (1930 - 1952) her death, Kathryn Crosby (1957 - 1977) his death - Bing Crosby on Broadway; film's White Christmas; The Road films; Blue Skies; Academy Award-winning actor: Going My Way [1944]; Big Broadcast of 1932

Betty Bruce 05/02/1920 - Jul 18, 1974 performer - orig The Boys Fr Syracuse; Keep Off the Grass; High Kickers (Sophie Tucker); Up in Central Park

Theodore Bikel 05/02/1924 performer, President of Actors' Equity Association (1973-1982) - Tonight in Samarkand (Louis Jourdan, Pernell Roberts); The Lark (Julie Harris, Christopher Plummer, Boris Karloff); orig The Sound of Music; Cafe Crown; Pousse-Café; tv's & film's Another World; My Fair Lady, The Pride and the Passion, The Defiant Ones

Roscoe Lee Browne 05/02/1925 - 4/11/2007 performer - The Cool World (James Earl Jones, Cicely Tyson, Billy Dee Williams); Tiger, Tiger Burning Bright; The Ballad of the Sad Cafe; My 1 & Only; film's The Connection; Topaz; Uptown Sat. Night; Planet of the Apes; Babe; Maude; All in the Family

Bernard Slade 5/2/1930 writer - Tribute; Same Time, Next Year

Bruce Glover 05/02/1932 performer, Father of Crispin Glover – originals: Night of the Iguana (Bette Davis, James Farentino, Patrick O’Neal); Mother Courage and Her Children (Anne Bancroft, Barbara Harris, Zohra Lampert, John Randolph, Gene Wilder); The Lion in Winter [u/s & s/b](Rosemary Harris, Robert Preston, Chris Walken)

David Suchet 05/02/1946 performer - 1999 Amadeus; tv's & film's Hercule Poirot series; Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes (1984)

Christine Baranski 05/02/1952 performer; Wife of Matthew Cowles (1983 - present); Juilliard graduate - Boeing-Boeing; Hide and Seek; The Real Thing; Rumors (Ken Howard); Nick & Nora; tv's & film's Cybill; Another World; All My Children; 9 1/2 Wks; The Birdcage; Playing For Time

FRED LANDAU May 2, 1960 writer, producer - librettist for the stage musical version of THE LAST STARFIGHTER (Storm Theatre; NYMF at the Theater at St. Clements; workshop, Village Theatre in Issaquah, WA; original cast album on Kritzerland label); and the book and score for the one-act musical THE HAPPIEST OF TIMES (New York's Triangle Theatre, workshop presentations at BMI, ASCAP, Chicago's Roosevelt University and Circle Rep). Associate producer (through Starfighter Onstage, LLC) of several Kritzerland CD's, including MILLA ILIEVA: TAKING A CHANCE ON LOVE; the CD reissue of ANYA; the CD reissue of ILLYA DARLING. Producer of PICKING UP THE PIECES, revue at Eighty-Eight's in NYC. Also known as "BklynBoy" on All that Chat.

SHOWS THAT OPENED ON THIS DATE:

1916 Commemorating the tercentenary of Shakespeare's death, the company from the Memorial Theatre at Stratford-upon-Avon presents a special matinee of Julius Caesar at the Drury Lane Theatre in London. Members of the company include Frank Benson, Gladys Cooper, Ben Greet and Ellen Terry.

1957 Franchot Tone and Wendy Hiller ponder A Moon for the Misbegotten at New York's Bijou Theatre. Carmen Capalbo stages this Eugene O'Neill drama that will run just 68 performances.

1984 Stephen Sondheim spends Sunday in the Park with George as his new musical opens on Broadway at the Booth Theatre. The show, which brings the famous George Seurat painting to life, stars Mandy Patinkin and Bernadette Peters.

1995 Hamlet with Ralph Feinnes, Francesca Annis, & Tara FitzGerald. Truly wish I'd seen this.

2000 Manhattan Theatre Club's staging of Proof, by David Auburn, begins performances tonight. Larry Bryggman, Johanna Day, Ben Shenkman and Mary-Louise Parker star in the play that will extend, transfer to Broadway's Walter Kerr Theatre and win newcomer Auburn the Pulitzer Prize for Drama.

2001 It's a publicist's dream: A lush revival of the musical 42nd Street opens on the revitalized 42nd Street (at the Ford Center), and goes on to win the Tony Award as Best Revival of a Musical.

2003 First Off-Broadway performance at Playwrights Horizons for Doug Wright's play I Am My Own Wife, which will move to Broadway and win the 2004 Pulitzer Prize.

2007 Coram Boy with Jan Maxwell. I LOVED this show! Couldn't take my eyes & ears off the stage.

ON THIS DAY IN:

1519 Artist Leonardo da Vinci died at Cloux, France.

On May 2, 1945, the Soviet Union announced the fall of Berlin and the Allies announced the surrender of Nazi troops in Italy and parts of Austria.

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

Milla