Today in 2003, Wicked opened at the Gershwin Theatre, where it is still running. Wicked is a musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz and a book by Winnie Holzman. Wicked tells the story of two unlikely friends, Elphaba (the Wicked Witch of the West) and Glinda (the Good Witch of the North), who struggle through opposing personalities and viewpoints, rivalry over the same love-interest, reactions to the Wizard's corrupt government, and, ultimately, Elphaba's public fall from grace. Its original stars included Idina Menzel as Elphaba, Kristin Chenoweth as Glinda, and Joel Grey as the Wizard. The original Broadway production won 3 Tony Awards and 6 Drama Desk Awards whilst its cast album received a Grammy Award.

Today in 2009, Finian's Rainbow opened at the St. James Theatre, where it ran for 92 performances. Finian's Rainbow is a musical with a book by E.Y. Harburg and Fred Saidy, lyrics by Harburg, and music by Burton Lane. The 1947 Broadway production ran for 725 performances. Finian moves to the southern United States (the fictional state of Missitucky is a humorous combination of Mississippi and Kentucky) from Ireland with his daughter Sharon, to bury a stolen pot of gold near Fort Knox, in the mistaken belief that it will grow. A leprechaun follows them, desperate to recover his treasure before the loss of it turns him permanently human. Complications arise when a bigoted and corrupt U.S. Senator gets involved, and when wishes are made inadvertently over the hidden crock.

Happy Birthday Elena Roger! In 2006, after a lengthy search, Argentinean actress Elena Roger became an overnight sensation starring in the title role in Michael Grandage's widely hailed production of EVITA in the West End and later brought the role to Broadway. A complete unknown to the rest of the world, Roger Starred in multiple theatrical productions and television shows in her native Argentina. Most recently Roger won the 2009 Olivier Award for Best Actress for her performance as Edith Piaf in The Donmar Theatre production of Piaf.

Happy Birthday Anthony Rapp! An actor since the age of six, Rapp has appeared on Broadway in Precious Sons, Rent, Six Degrees of Separation, The Little Prince and the Aviator, and the revival of You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown. His films include Adventures in Babysitting, School Ties, Dazed and Confused, Six Degrees of Separation, and more. He will next starr on Broadway opposite Idina Menzel in IF/THEN.

Happy Birthday Adam Pascal! Pascal received Obie and Theatre World awards and Tony and Drama Desk nominations for best actor for Rent. On Broadway, he also originated the role of Radames in the hit musical Aida and starred as the Emcee in the long-running revival of Cabaret. His film credits include Rent, School of Rock, SLC Punk!, Temptation and Goyband. He most recently starred in Memphis on Broadway.

Happy Birthday Raul Esparza! Since making his Broadway debut, Esparza has become only the second actor to receive Tony nominations in all four eligible acting categories. Most recently he took on the role of con artist Jonas Nightingale in the Broadway musical adaptation of Leap of Faith directed by Christopher Ashley. Additional Broadway credits include The Rocky Horror Show, Taboo, Company, Arcadia, and more!

Today in 1972, Pippin opened at the Imperial Theatre, where it ran for 1944 performances. Pippin is a musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz and a book by Roger O. Hirson. Bob Fosse, who directed the original Broadway production, also contributed to the libretto. The musical uses the premise of a mysterious acting troupe, led by a Leading Player, to tell the story of Pippin, a young prince on his search for meaning and significance. The original cast included: Eric Berry, Jill Clayburgh, Leland Palmer, Irene Ryan, Ben Vereen, and John Rubinstein.

Today in 1998, Footloose opened at the Richard Rodgers Theatre, where it ran for 709 performances. Footloose is a 1998 musical based on the 1984 film of the same name. The music is by Tom Snow (among others), the lyrics by Dean Pitchford (with additional lyrics by Kenny Loggins), and the book by Pitchford and Walter Bobbie. It starred Jeremy Kushnier as Ren McCormack, Stephen Lee Anderson as Reverend Shaw Moore, Jennifer Laura Thompson as Ariel Moore, Tom Plotkin as Willard Hewitt, and Dee Hoty as Vi Moore.

Happy Birthday Jerry Orbach! Jerry Orbach, best known for his starring role as wisecracking Detective Lennie Briscoe in the long-running television series 'Law & Order,' was also an accomplished Tony Award-winning Broadway and Off-Broadway actor. His theatre career began in 1960 as El Gallo in the original Off-Broadway production of The Fantasticks. He later went on to star on Broadway in such musicals as 42nd Street, Chicago (Tony Award nomination), Guys and Dolls (Tony Award nomination) and Promises, Promises which earned him the 1969 Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical.

Today in 2001, Mamma Mia opened at the Winter Garden Theatre, where it is still running. Mamma Mia! is a stage musical written by British playwright Catherine Johnson, based on the songs of ABBA, composed by Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus, former members of the band. The musical includes such hits as 'Super Trouper', 'Lay All Your Love On Me', 'Dancing Queen', 'Knowing Me, Knowing You', 'Take A Chance On Me', 'Thank You for the Music', 'Money, Money, Money', 'The Winner Takes It All', 'Voulez Vous' and 'SOS'. Over 42 million people have seen the show, which has grossed $2 billion dollars worldwide since its 1999 debut.

Happy Birthday Susan Stroman! Winner of the Tony award for both direction and choreography of the original Broadway production of The Producers, Stroman's Broadway work includes The Scottsboro Boys, Contact, Crazy for You, Show Boat, Oklahoma!, Young Frankenstein, The Frogs, The Music Man, Thou Shalt Not, Steel Pier, Big, Picnic. A five-time Tony Award winner, Stroman's work has been honored with Olivier, Drama Desk, Outer Critics, Lucille Lortel, George Abbott and Astaire awards.

Happy Birthday Angela Lansbury! Lansbury - who returned to Broadway in this year's revival of THE BEST MAN - has enjoyed an unprecedented career, first as a star of motion pictures, and then as an award-winning stage actor in New York and London. She appeared as Madame Armfeldt in the 2009 revival of A Little Night Music, and before that as Madame Arcati in the 2009 revival of Noel Coward's Blithe Spirit, for which she won her fifth Tony Award, as well as Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Awards. She performed in 2006 in Terrence McNally's Deuce, for which she was also nominated for a Tony Award. She made her Broadway debut in 1957 as Bert Lahr's wife in Hotel Paradiso. In 1960, she returned to Broadway as Joan Plowright's mother in the season's most acclaimed drama, A Taste of Honey, by Shelagh Delaney. A year later, she starred in her first musical, Anyone Can Whistle. Lansbury returned to Broadway in triumph in 1966 in Mame, for which she won her first Tony Award.

Today in 2009 the first Broadway revival of Bye Bye Birdie opened at Henry Miller's Theatre (now the Stephen Sondheim Theatre), where it ran for 117 performances. Originally titled Let's Go Steady, the satire on American society is set in 1958. The story was inspired by the phenomenon of popular singer Elvis Presley and his draft notice into the Army in 1957. The original Broadway production was a Tony Award-winning success. It spawned a London production and several major revivals, a sequel, a 1963 film and a 1995 television production.

Happy Birthday Hugh Jackman! Jackman was recently seen in the role of Jean Valjean in the Les Miserables film. Jackman is also working on Broadway's Harry Houdini, set for the stage in 2014. He has also appeared on the Great White Way in Hugh Jackman, Back on Broadway, A Steady Rain and The Boy From Oz. He played Curly in the West End's Oklahoma!, and appeared in an Off-Broadway production of Carousel, along with hosting the Tony Awards three times.production of Carousel, along with hosting the Tony Awards three times.

Happy Birthday Ben Vereen! On Broadway, Ben Vereen has appeared in Wicked, I'm not Rappaport, Hair, Jesus Christ Superstar, Pippin, Grind, Jelly's Last Jam, and A Christmas Carol. His role in Pippin garnered him both the prestigious Tony Award and the Drama Desk award for 'Best Actor in a Musical.'

Happy Birthday Marin Mazzie! Marin most recently starred in the off-Broadway revival of Carrie. Before that she led the Tony and Pulitzer Prize-winning musical, Next to Normal and in the Broadway production of Enron. She received Tony and Drama Desk nominations and an Outer Critics Circle Award for her performance as Lilli/Katharine in the hit revival of Kiss Me, Kate, and later received an Olivier Award nomination when she made her West End debut in the show. Other Broadway credits include: Monty Python's Spamalot (also West End), Ragtime (Tony, Drama Desk, and Outer Critics nominations), Passion (Tony nomination), Man of La Mancha, Into the Woods, Big River, and Out of this World and Kismet (Encores!).

Today in 1946, Cyrano de Bergerac opened at the Alvin Theatre (now the Neil Simon Theatre), where it ran for 193 performances. Cyrano de Bergerac is a play written in 1897 by Edmond Rostand. Although there was a real Cyrano de Bergerac, the play bears a very scant resemblance to his life. The entire play is written in verse, in rhyming couplets of 12 syllables per line, very close to the Alexandrine format, but the verses sometimes lack a caesura. Notable English-speaking Cyranos include Ralph Richardson, DeVeren Bookwalter, Derek Jacobi, Richard Chamberlain, and Christopher Plummer, who played the part in Rostand's original play and won a Tony Award for the 1973 musical adaptation. Kevin Kline played the role in a Broadway production in 2007. The play is currently in previews at the American Airlines Theatre, starring Douglas Hodge in the title role.

Happy Birthday, Alfred Drake! He is best known for his leading roles in the original Broadway productions of Oklahoma!; Kiss Me, Kate; Kismet; and for playing Marshall Blackstone in the original production of Babes in Arms, (in which he sang the title song) and Hajj in Kismet, for which he received the Tony Award. His 1964 stage performance as Claudius in the Richard Burton Hamlet was filmed live on the stage of the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre. His final stage appearance in a musical was in 1973 as Honore LaChaisse in Lerner and Loewe's Gigi. Two years later he starred in a revival of The Skin of Our Teeth.

Arden best known for starring on Broadway in Bob Dylan and Twyla Tharp's musical The Times They Are A-Changin.' Additional Broadway credits include the Roundabout Theatre Company's presentation of the Deaf West Theatre sign-language production of Big River. Other credits include Ace, Swimming in the Shallows, Bare, Harold & Maude and It's Only Life Off-Broadway. Arden also joined Barbra Streisand during her world concert tour and appeared in the City Center Encores! staging of Juno.

Today in 2006, the first Broadway revival of A Chorus Line opened at the Schoenfeld Theatre, where it ran for 759 performances. A Chorus Line is a musical about Broadway dancers auditioning for spots on a chorus line. The book was authored by James Kirkwood, Jr. and Nicholas Dante, lyrics were written by Edward Kleban, and music was composed by Marvin Hamlisch. With nineteen main characters, it is set on the bare stage of a Broadway theatre during an audition for a musical. The show provides a glimpse into the personalities of the performers and the choreographer as they describe the events that have shaped their lives and their decisions to become dancers. The original Broadway production received 12 Tony Award nominations and winning nine of them, in addition to the 1976 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.

Happy Birthday, Liev Screiber! Schreiber's performance as Ricky Roma in the 2005 Broadway revival of David Mamet's 'Glengarry Glen Ross', directed by Joe Mantello, earned him his first Tony Award. He was again a Tony nominee for his portrayal of Barry Champlain in the 2007 Broadway revival of Eric Bogosian's 'Talk Radio', directed by Robert Falls, Other stage work includes The Public Theater's Shakespeare in the Park production of 'Macbeth', in the lead role opposite Jennifer Ehle, directed by Moises Kaufman; 'Iago'; 'Hamlet'; 'Henry the V'; and 'Cymbeline'.

Today in 2003, Little Shop of Horrors opened at the Virginia Theatre (now the August Wilson Theatre), where it ran for 372 performances. Little Shop of Horrors is a comedy horror rock musical, by composer Alan Menken and writer Howard Ashman, about a hapless florist shop worker who raises a plant that feeds on human blood and flesh. The musical is based on the low-budget 1960 black comedy film The Little Shop of Horrors, directed by Roger Corman. The music, composed by Menken in the style of early 1960s rock and roll, doo-wop and early Motown, includes several well-known tunes, including the title song, 'Skid Row (Downtown)', 'Somewhere That's Green', and 'Suddenly, Seymour'.

Happy Birthday, Julie Andrews! Andrews made her Broadway debut in 1954 with The Boy Friend, and rose to prominence starring in other musicals such as My Fair Lady and Camelot, and in musical films such as Mary Poppins (1964), for which she won the Academy Award for Best Actress, and The Sound of Music (1965). She has starred in films such as The Princess Diaries (2001), its sequel The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement (2004), the Shrek animated films (2004-2010), and Despicable Me (2010).

Happy Birthday, George Gershwin! Gershwin's compositions spanned both popular and classical genres, and his most popular melodies are widely known. Among his best known works are the orchestral compositions Rhapsody in Blue and An American in Paris, as well as the opera Porgy and Bess. Gershwin's music has been heard on the Broadway stage in Nice Work If You Can Get It, Crazy for You, and many more.

Today in 1979, Evita opened at the Broadway Theatre, where it ran for 1567 performances. Evita is a musical with music by Andrew Lloyd Webber and lyrics by Tim Rice. It concentrates on the life of Argentine political leader Eva Peron, the second wife of Argentine president Juan Peron. The story follows Evita's early life, rise to power, charity work, and eventual death. Evita began as a rock opera concept album released in 1976. Its success led to productions in London's West End in 1978, and on Broadway a year later, both of which enjoyed considerable success. A major 1996 film of the musical starred Madonna and Antonio Banderas. In 2006, the musical was revived in London, and on Broadway in 2012.