Happy Birthday, Mario Cantone! He made his Broadway debut in 1995 as replacement for the role of Buzz in the Tony Award-winning play, Love! Valour! Compassion!. Later that year, he returned to Broadway again in the revival of The Tempest. In 2004, Cantone starred in the Stephen Sondheim musical Assassins as Samuel Byck. His latest Broadway credit was in his second one-man show, Laugh Whore, which he also wrote. Laugh Whore ran from October 24, 2004, to January 2, 2005, at the Cort Theatre and received a Tony Award nomination for Best Special Theatrical Event.

Happy Birthday, Stephanie D'Abruzzo! Though D'Abruzzo has spent most of her career performing as a puppeteer in children's television, she is best known for originating the roles of single schoolteacher Kate Monster and sultry chanteuse Lucy the Slut in the Broadway musical Avenue Q. D'Abruzzo earned widespread acclaim for her performance of the dual role, including a nomination for the 2004 Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical, a Drama Desk nomination, the Theatre World Award, and the Outer Critics Circle Special Ensemble Award. Her other stage credits include I Love You Because (off-Broadway), If You Give A Mouse A Cookie (TheaterworksUSA), Carnival (for City Center Encores!), Kiss and Makeup (New York City Fringe Festival), and Austentatious (New York Musical Theatre Festival).

Happy Birthday, Ira Gershwin! A lyricist, Gershwin collaborated with his younger brother, composer George Gershwin, to create some of the most memorable songs of the 20th century. With George he wrote more than a dozen Broadway shows, featuring songs such as 'I Got Rhythm', 'Embraceable You', 'The Man I Love' and 'Someone to Watch Over Me'. He was also responsible, along with DuBose Heyward, for the libretto to George's opera Porgy and Bess. The success the brothers had with their collaborative works has often overshadowed the creative role that Ira played. However, his mastery of songwriting continued after the early death of George. He wrote additional hit songs with composers Jerome Kern ('Long Ago (and Far Away)'), Kurt Weill and Harold Arlen.

Today in 2002, the fourth Broadway revival of Man of La Mancha opened at the Martin Beck Theatre (now the Al Hirschfeld Theatre), where it ran for 304 performances. Man of La Mancha is a musical with a book by Dale Wasserman, lyrics by Joe Darion and music by Mitch Leigh. It is adapted from Wasserman's non-musical 1959 teleplay I, Don Quixote, which was in turn inspired by Miguel de Cervantes's seventeenth century masterpiece Don Quixote. It tells the story of the 'mad' knight, Don Quixote, as a play within a play, performed by Cervantes and his fellow prisoners as he awaits a hearing with the Spanish Inquisition.The original 1965 Broadway production ran for 2,328 performances and won five Tony Awards, including Best Musical. The musical has been revived four times on Broadway, becoming one of the most enduring works of musical theatre.

Today in 1983, Baby opened at the Ethel barrymore Theatre, where it ran for 241 performances. Baby is a musical with a book by Sybille Pearson, based on a story developed with Susan Yankowitz, music by David Shire, and lyrics by Richard Maltby, Jr.. It concerns the reactions of three couples each expecting a child. Lizzie and Danny are university juniors who have just moved in together. Athletic Pam and her husband, Nick, a sports instructor, have had some trouble conceiving. Arlene, already the mother of three grown daughters, is unsure of what to do, contemplating abortion while her husband Alan is thrilled with the thought of a new baby. Throughout the show, these characters experience the emotional stresses and triumphs, the desperate lows and the comic highs, that accompany the anticipation and arrival of a baby.

Today in 1960, Camelot opened at the Majestic Theatre, where it ran for 873 performances. Camelot is a musical by Alan Jay Lerner (book and lyrics) and Frederick Loewe (music). It is based on the King Arthur legend as adapted from the T. H. White tetralogy novel The Once and Future King. The original 1960 production, directed by Moss Hart and orchestrated by Robert Russell Bennett and Philip J. Lang, won four Tony Awards and spawned several revivals, foreign productions and a 1967 film version.

Happy Birthday, Ron Raines! His Broadway credits include Follies (Tony Award nomination), Chicago, Show Boat, Teddy and Alice. he has performed with over fifty symphonies including Chicago, Cleveland, BBC, Royal Philharmonic, Boston Pops, Philly Pops. National Tours & Regional credits include: The Unsinkable Molly Brown, A Little Night Music, Annie, The King and I, Kiss Me Kate, South Pacific, Kismet, etc.

Happy Birthday, Mandy Patinkin! Mandy Patinkin won the Tony Award for his Broadway debut in Evita and was again nominated for Sunday in the Park with George and The Wild Party. He also appeared on Broadway in Trelawny of the ‘Wells,' The Shadow Box, The Secret Garden, Falsettos, and his solo concerts Dress Casual, Celebrating Sondheim, and Mamaloshen. Other theatre credits include The Split, Savages, Enemy of the People, and most recently The Tempest at Classic Stage Company. Mandy continues to tour his concerts Dress Casual, Celebrating Sondheim, Mamaloshen, and An Evening with Patti LuPone and Mandy Patinkin.

Today in 2006, Company opened at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre, where it ran for 246 performances. Company is a musical comedy based on a book by George Furth with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim. The original production was nominated for a then-unheard-of and subsequent record-setting fourteen Tony Awards and won six. The plot revolves around Bobby (a single man unable to commit fully to a steady relationship, let alone marriage), the five married couples who are his best friends, and his three girlfriends. Unlike most book musicals, which follow a clearly delineated plot, Company is a concept musical composed of short vignettes, presented in no particular chronological order, linked by a celebration for Bobby's 35th birthday.

Today in 1981, Merrily We Roll Along closed at the Alvin Theatre (now the Neil Simon Theatre), where it ran for 16 performances. Merrily We Roll Along is a musical with a book by George Furth and lyrics and music by Stephen Sondheim. It is based on the 1934 play of the same name by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart. Furth and Sondheim retained the basic structure and overall theme of the play but updated it to encompass the period from 1957 to 1976. The story revolves around Franklin Shepard who, having once been a talented composer of Broadway musicals, has now abandoned his friends and his songwriting career to become a producer of Hollywood flicks. Like the play, the musical begins at the height of his Hollywood fame and moves backwards in time, showing snapshots of the most important moments in Frank's life that shaped the man that he is today.

Today in 1991, the second Broadway revival of Peter Pan opened at the MInskoff Theatre, where it ran for 48 performances. Peter Pan is a musical adaptation of J. M. Barrie's 1904 play Peter Pan and Barrie's own novelization of it, Peter and Wendy. The music is mostly by Mark 'Moose' Charlap, with additional music by Jule Styne, and most of the lyrics were written by Carolyn Leigh, with additional lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolph Green. The original 1954 Broadway production, starring Mary Martin as Peter and Cyril Ritchard as Captain Hook, earned Tony Awards for both stars.

Happy Birthday, Scarlett Johansson! Johansson won a Tony for her Broadway debut in the Arthur Miller play A View from a Bridge opposite Liev Schreiber. Johansson was recently seen in the worldwide box office hit The Avengers. She has also recently wrapped production on the independent film Under The Skin for director Jonathan Glazer (Sexy Beast) playing the lead role and plays Janet Leigh in the upcoming film Hitchcock. She will soon return to Broadway opposite Benjamin Walker in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.

Today in 2011, An Evening with Patti LuPone and Mandy Patinkin opened at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre, where it ran for 57 performances. In the concert, Patti LuPone and Mandy Patinkin, two Broadway legends who first appeared together giving Tony Award winning performances in Evita, created a funny, passionate, intimate and unique musical love story told entirely through a masterful selection of some of the greatest songs ever written for the stage.

Happy Birthday Jeremy Jordan! This year, Jordan was nominated for a Tony Award for his role as Jack Kelly in NEWSIES, which he began with Paper Mill Playhouse's U.S. touring production in 2011. Jordan has also appeared in Broadway's Bonnie & Clyde in 2011, as well as Rock of Ages and West Side Story in 2009. He guest-starred on Law & Order: SVU in 2008 and appeared in the film Joyful Noise. He will soon appear on the upcoming second season of NBC's SMASH.

Happy Birthday Laura Osnes! Osnes made her Broadway debut in the 2007 revival of Grease. On March 10, 2009 Osnes took over the role of Ensign Nellie Forbush from Tony Award nominee Kelli O'Hara, who went on maternity leave, in the Lincoln Center Theater Broadway revival of South Pacific. She then starred as Hope Harcourt, alongside Sutton Foster and Joel Grey, in the Broadway revival of Anything Goes. Osnes then played Bonnie Parker opposite Jeremy Jordan in Bonnie & Clyde, which opened at the Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre in 2011. She will soon lead the upcoming revival of Cinderella.

Today in 2006, Mary Poppins opened at the New Amsterdam Theatre, where it is still running. Mary Poppins is a Walt Disney Theatrical musical based on the similarly titled series of children's books by P. L. Travers and the 1964 Disney film. It received seven Tony Award nominations, including Best Musical, winning for Best Scenic Design.

Happy Birthday Brent Carver! Carver is best known for his performances on Broadway in Kiss of the Spider Woman as Molina, for which he won the Tony Award for Best Leading Actor in a Musical in 1993, Fiddler on the Roof, and Parade as Leo Frank. Carver originated the role of Gandalf in the Toronto stage production of The Lord of the Rings and has appeared in several Soulpepper Theatre Company productions such as The Wild Duck, Don Carlos and the Pirate King in the 1985 production of The Pirates of Penzance.

Happy Birthday Daphne Rubin-Vega! Rubin Vega is a two-time Tony and Drama Desk nominee and recipient of the Theater World, Obie, Blockbuster awards and was recently nominated for an Independent Spirit Award for her role in Jack Goes Boating. She is perhaps best known for the roles she originated, including Mimi (RENT) and Conchita (Anna in the Tropics), both Pulitzer Prize winning Broadway shows for which she was nominated for the Tony award. She also originated the role of Rahmi (Gum), Sofia (Nilo Cruz' Two Sisters and a Piano), Canary Mary (Suzan-Lori Parks' Fucking A, Lucille Lortel nomination) and Lucy (Jack Goes Boating) at the Public Theater, as well as starred in the Broadway revivals of The Rocky Horror Picture Show (Magenta) and Les Mis, ('Fantine') and most recently, The New Group's Blood From a Stone ('Yvette') opposite Ethan Hawke.'

Today in 1996, the first Broadway revival of Chicago opened at the Richard Rodgers Theatre, and it continues to run at the Ambassador Theatre. Chicago is a musical set in Prohibition-era Chicago, with music is by John Kander with lyrics by Fred Ebb and a book by Ebb and Bob Fosse. Chicago's 1996 Broadway revival holds the record for the longest-running musical revival on Broadway and is its fourth longest-running show.

Today in 2008, Billy Elliot opened at the Imperial Theatre, where it ran for 1312 performances. Billy Elliot the Musical is a musical based on the 2000 film Billy Elliot. The music is by Elton John, and book and lyrics are by Lee Hall, who wrote the film's screenplay. The plot revolves around motherless Billy, who trades boxing gloves for ballet shoes. The story of his personal struggle and fulfillment are balanced against a counter-story of family and community strife caused by the UK miners' strike in County Durham, in North Eastern England. It won ten Tony Awards and ten Drama Desk Awards, including, in each case, best musical.

Today in 1989, Grand Hotel opened at the Martin Beck Theatre (now the Al Hirschfeld Theatre) where it ran for 1017 performances. Grand Hotel is a musical with a book by Luther Davis and music and lyrics by Robert Wright and George Forrest, with additional lyrics and music by Maury Yeston. Based on the 1929 Vicki Baum novel and play, Menschen im Hotel (People in a Hotel), and the subsequent 1932 MGM feature film, the musical focuses on events taking place over the course of a weekend in an elegant hotel in 1928 Berlin and the intersecting stories of the eccentric guests of the hotel, including a fading prima ballerina; a fatally ill Jewish bookkeeper, who wants to spend his final days living in luxury; a young, handsome, but destitute Baron; a cynical doctor; and a typist dreaming of Hollywood success.

Today in 2006, the first Broadway revival of Les Miserables opened at the Broadhurst Theatre, where it ran for 463 performances. Written by Claude-Michel Schönberg, based on the novel by Victor Hugo, Les Miserables is set in early 19th-century France. The plot follows the stories of many characters as they struggle for redemption and revolution. In January 2010, it played its ten-thousandth performance in London, at Queen's Theatre in London's West End. On 3 October 2010, the show celebrated its 25th anniversary with three productions running in the same city: the original show at London's West End; the Twenty-Fifth Anniversary touring production at the original home of the show, the Barbican Centre; and the Twenty-Fifth Anniversary concert at London's O2 Arena.

Happy Birthday Jackie Hoffman! Hoffman was seen on Broadway as Grandma in The Addams Family. Her other Broadway credits include Xanadu and Hairspray (for which she received the Theatre World Award). Off-Broadway she has been seen in Regrets Only, Pride & Joy, Book of Liz (Obie Award), Straightjacket, Incident at Cobbler's Knob, and One Woman Shoe. Regional credits include Second City (Jeff Award), Sisters Rosensweig.

Today in 2007, Young Frankenstein opened at the Hilton Theatre (now the Foxwoods Theatre), where it ran for 485 performances. Young Frankenstein is a musical with a book by Mel Brooks and Thomas Meehan and music and lyrics by Brooks. It is based on the 1974 comedy film of the same name written by Brooks and Gene Wilder and directed by Brooks, who has described it as his best film. It is a parody of the horror film genre, especially the 1931 Universal Pictures adaptation of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and its 1939 sequel, Son of Frankenstein.

Today in 2011, Godspell opened at the Circle in the Square Theatre, where it ran for 264 performances. Godspell is a musical by Stephen Schwartz and John-Michael Tebelak. It opened off Broadway on May 17, 1971, and has played in various touring companies and revivals many times since.The structure of the musical is that of a series of parables, based on the Gospel of Matthew (though three of the parables featured are recorded only in the Gospel of Luke). These are then interspersed with a variety of modern music set primarily to lyrics from traditional hymns, with the passion of Christ treated briefly near the end of the performance.