1858 Our American Cousin, Tom Taylor's comedy about the difference in manners between the English and the Americans, debuts in New York, and proves an enduring hit, touring and being revived around the U.S. It goes down in history April 14, 1865 when President Abraham Lincoln, seeking to lift his spirits after the end of the Civil War just days before, takes in a performance at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C.—and is assassinated by actor John Wilkes Booth. Booth knew just when the laughs would be loud enough—on the line "You sockdologizing old mantrap!"—to distract from the sound of his entering the president's box.
1898 Birthday of actor and singer Lotte Lenya, who stars in Berlin musicals by her husband, composer Kurt Weill, and flees with him to France and then the U.S. after the rise of Hitler. Her New York stage appearances include the long-running Off-Broadway revival of Weill's The Threepenny Opera in 1955, and in the musical Cabaret in 1966.
1950 Variety reports that the standout feature in Guys and Dolls, which is having a tryout in Philadelphia, is Abe Burrows' book. Usually a score is most anticipated, but "the Frank Loesser score is likely to come into its rightful prominence when it has been reorchestrated to give greater emphasis to melody," says Variety. The Guys and Dolls book and score win over the critics when it opens on Broadway on November 24 of the same year.
1964 New Yorkers can either head downtown to the Sullivan Street Playhouse to see tonight's performance of The Fantasticks, or they can stay home and watch the broadcast on the NBC television network. The Off-Broadway production has the honor of being the only one ever to compete directly with a televised broadcast of itself.
1966 Barbara Harris, Alan Alda, and Larry Blyden star in The Apple Tree—three one-act musicals about men, women, and temptation, based on stories by Mark Twain, Frank R. Stockton, and Jules Feiffer—opening on Broadway at the Shubert Theatre. Written by Jerry Bock and Sheldon Harnick, and directed by Mike Nichols, it runs for 463 performances.
1990 Once on This Island opens on Broadway at the Booth Theatre. LaChanze, Jerry Dixon, and Kecia Lewis-Evans star in the musical about Caribbean fairy tales and the collision of two cultures as a young, French Antillean woman (LaChanze) falls in love with an American aristocrat (Dixon). The show, which transferred from Playwrights Horizons, marks the Broadway debut for future Tony Award-winning songwriters Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty. It runs 469 performances.
2001 The blockbuster musical Mamma Mia! opens on Broadway with a record advance sale. Built around 1970s disco hits by the rock band ABBA, it runs for almost 14 years.
2015 The world premiere of Jerry Bock, Sheldon Harnick, and Sherman Yellen's Rothschild & Sons opens Off-Broadway at the York Theatre Company. The musical was originally presented on Broadway in 1970 as The Rothschilds, but this new version condenses the story into one act, and includes several new songs. Robert Cuccioli stars as patriarch Mayer Rothschild.
2018 The world premiere of Jeremy Kareken, David Murrell, and Gordon Farrell's The Lifespan of a Fact opens on Broadway at Studio 54. The play, based on John D'Agata and Jim Fingal's book of the same name, follows a determined young fact checker (Daniel Radcliffe) whose editor (Cherry Jones) assigns him to check an essay by an unorthodox writer (Bobby Cannavale).
More of Today's Birthdays: Miriam Hopkins (1902–1972). Sidney Kingsley (1906–1995). Gabriel Dell (1919–1988). George C. Scott (1927–1999). Gary Geld (b. 1935). Joe Morton (b. 1947). Ntozake Shange (1948–2018). Wendy Wasserstein (1950–2006).
