Today in 1959, The Most Happy Fella opened at City Center where it ran for 16 performances. With a book, music, and lyrics by Frank Loesser, the story isabout a romance between an older man and younger woman, is based on the play They Knew What They Wanted by Sidney Howard. The original Broadway production opened in 1956 and ran for 14 months. A 1992 revival, directed by Gerald Guttierrez, featured Spiro Malas as Tony, Sophie Hayden as Rosabella, Charles Pistone as Joe, Claudia Catania as Marie, Liz Larsen as Cleo, and Scott Waara as Herman.

Today in 1984, The Rink opend at the Martin Beck Theatre (now the Al Hirschfeld Theatre), where it ran for 204 performances. With a book by Terrence McNally, lyrics by Fred Ebb, and music by John Kander, the musical focuses on Anna, the owner of a dilapidated roller skating rink on the boardwalk of a decaying seaside resort, who has decided to sell it to developers. Complicating her plans are her prodigal daughter Angel, who returns to town seeking to reconnect with the people and places she long ago left behind. Through a series of flashbacks, revelations, and minimal forward-moving plot development, the two deal with their pasts in their attempt to reconcile and move on with their lives.

Happy Birthday Sherie Rene Scott! On Broadway Scott has starred as Christine in Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, garnering nominations for a Tony Award, a Drama Desk Award and an Outer Critics Circle Award; Amneris in Elton John and Tim Rice's Aida (2000), for which she won the Clarence Derwent Award and was a Drama League Honoree; Sally in Tommy (1993); Marty in Grease (1995-96); Maureen in Rent (1997); and originated the role of Ursula in The Little Mermaid (2007). In 2010 Scott starred in the critically acclaimed production Everyday Rapture, which Scott wrote with co-author Dick Scanlan. She most recently starred as Pepa in the musical adaptation of Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown.

Happy Birthday Charles Dickens! An English novelist, Dickens is generally considered the greatest of the Victorian period. Dickens enjoyed a wider popularity and fame than had any previous author during his lifetime, and he remains popular, having been responsible for some of English literature's most iconic novels and characters. Many of his writings were originally published serially, in monthly instalments, a format of publication which Dickens himself helped popularise. Many of hisworks have been turned into Broadway shows, including: Oliver!, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, A Christmas Carol, a Tale of Two Cities, and more.

Today in 1975, Private Lives opened at the 46th Street Theatre (now the Richard Rogers Theatre), where it ran for 92 performances. Private Lives is a 1930 comedy of manners in three acts by Noël Coward. It focuses on a divorced couple who discover that they are honeymooning with their new spouses in neighbouring rooms at the same hotel. Despite a perpetually stormy relationship, they realise that they still have feelings for each other. Its second act love scene was nearly censored in Britain as too risqué. Coward wrote one of his most popular songs, 'Some Day I'll Find You', for the play.

Happy Birthday, John Guare! He is best known as the author of The House of Blue Leaves, Six Degrees of Separation, and Landscape of the Body. Guare has also been involved with musical theatre. His libretto with Mel Shapiro for the musical Two Gentlemen of Verona was a success when it premiered in 1971 and was revived in 2005 at the Public Theater's Shakespeare in the Park. It won the two men the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Book of a Musical. He wrote the songs for Landscape of the Body. In 1999, he revised the book of the Cole Porter musical comedy, Kiss Me, Kate for its Broadway revival. He also wrote the book for the Broadway musical Sweet Smell of Success.

Today in 1999, You're A Good an Charlie Brown opened at the Ambassador Theatre, where it ran for 149 performances. A 1967 musical comedy with music and lyrics by Clark Gesner, the show is based on the characters created by cartoonist Charles M. Schulz in his comic strip Peanuts. THe 1999 revival featured new dialogue by Michael Mayer, who also directed, and additional songs and orchestration written by Andrew Lippa; choreography was by Jerry Mitchell. The cast featured Anthony Rapp, Kristin Chenoweth, and Roger Bart.

Happy Birthday Nathan Lane! Lane is best known for his roles as Albert in The Birdcage, Max Bialystock in the musical The Producers, Ernie Smuntz in MouseHunt, Nathan Detroit in Guys and Dolls, Pseudolus in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, and his voice work in The Lion King and Stuart Little. In 2008, he was inducted into the American Theatre Hall of Fame.

Happy Birthday Marissa Jaret Winokur! She is best known for her performance as Tracy Turnblad in the highly successful Broadway musical adaptation of John Waters' film Hairspray, and won the 2003 Tony Award for Best Leading Actress in a Musical, Drama Desk Award, Theatre World Award, and Outer Critics Circle Award for her performance. She recently reprised the role in the Hollywood Bowl production of Hairspray last summer.

Today in 1915, The Merchant of Venice opened at the 44th Street Theatre. A tragic comedy by William Shakespeare, the play believed to have been written between 1596 and 1598. The title character is the merchant Antonio, not the Jewish moneylender Shylock, who is the play's most prominent and most famous character. This is made explicit by the title page of the first quarto: The mo?t excellent Hi?torie of the Merchant of Venice. The play was recenlty brought to Broadway in 2010 after a successful run at Shakespeare in the Park with Al Pacino and Lily Rabe.

Happy Birthday Carol Channing! She is the recipient of three Tony Awards (including one for lifetime achievement), a Golden Globe and an Oscar nomination. Channing is best remembered for originating, on Broadway, the musical-comedy roles of bombshell Lorelei Lee in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, and matchmaking widow Dolly Gallagher Levi in Hello, Dolly! She also appeared in two New York revivals of Hello, Dolly!, and toured with it extensively throughout the United States. Channing also appeared in a number of movies, The First Traveling Sales Lady (1956) with Ginger Rogers, the cult film Skidoo and Thoroughly Modern Millie, opposite Julie Andrews and Mary Tyler Moore.

Happy Birthday Norbert Leo Butz! Butz made his Broadway debut as Adam Pascal's replacement as Roger Davis in Rent in 1996. Additional Broadway credits include Thou Shalt Not (Camille Raquin, 2001-2002), for which he received a Tony Award nomination; Wicked (the original Fiyero, 2003) and Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (Freddy) for which he received the Tony Award for Best Leading Actor in a Musical, the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actor in a Musical, a Drama League Award, and an Outer Critics Circle Award. His Off-Broadway credits include The Last Five Years (Jamie), Songs for a New World (Lead Male 2), Saved (Fred), and Juno and the Paycock (Jerry Devine). MOst recently, Butz originated the role of Carl Hanratty in the new musical Catch Me If You Can. For this role he won his second Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actor in a Musical[14] and his second Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical.

Today in 1966, Sweet Charity opened at the Palace Theatre, where it ran for 608 performances. Featuring music by Cy Coleman, lyrics by Dorothy Fields and book by Neil Simon, the musical was directed and choreographed for Broadway by Bob Fosse starring his wife and muse Gwen Verdon. It is based on Federico Fellini's screenplay for Nights of Cabiria. The musical premiered on Broadway in 1966, where it was nominated for 12 Tony Awards, and also ran in the West End as well as having revivals and international productions.

Today in 1982, Macbeth opened at the Circle in the Square Theatre, where it ran for 21 performances. Written by William Shakespeare, Macbeth is about a regicide and its aftermath. It is Shakespeare's shortest tragedy and is believed to have been written sometime between 1603 and 1607. The earliest account of a performance of what was probably Shakespeare's play is April 1611, when Simon Forman recorded seeing such a play at the Globe Theatre.

Today in 1982, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat opened at the Royale Theatre (now the Bernard B, Jacobs Theatre), where it ran for 747 performances. Written by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice, the story is based on the 'coat of many colors' story of Joseph from the Hebrew Bible's Book of Genesis. In 1999, a movie version with Donny Osmond in the title role was released, directed by David Mallet.

Today in 1988, The Phantom of the Opera opened at the Majestic Theatre, where it has played for 9980 performances and still running. Written by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Charles Hart, the musical opened in the West End in 1986, celebrating its 25th anniversary in October 2011. It won the 1986 Olivier Award and the 1988 Tony Award for Best Musical, and Michael Crawford (in the title role) won the 1986 Olivier and 1988 Tony for Best Performance by an Actor in a Musical. It is the longest-running Broadway show by a wide margin, the second longest-running West End musical, and the third longest-running West End show overall.

Today in 1938, Pygmalion opened at the Maxine Elliott's Theatre. Written by Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw, the play centers on Professor of phonetics Henry Higgins. He makes a bet that he can train a bedraggled Cockney flower girl, Eliza Doolittle, to pass for a duchess at an ambassador's garden party by teaching her to assume a veneer of gentility, the most important element of which, he believes, is impeccable speech. The play is a sharp lampoon of the rigid British class system of the day and a comment on women's independence, packaged as a romantic comedy.

Today in 2010, A View From the Bridge opened at the Cort Theatre, where it ran for 81 performances. Written by American playwright Arthur Miller, the show was first staged on September 29, 1955 as a one-act verse drama with A Memory of Two Mondays at the Coronet Theatre on Broadway. The play is set in 1950s America, in an Italian American neighborhood near the Brooklyn Bridge in New York. It employs both a chorus and a narrator (Alfieri). Eddie, the tragic protagonist, has an improper love of, and almost obsession with, Catherine. The 2010 revival starred Liev Schreiber, Scarlett Johansson and Jessica Hecht.

Today in 2005, Little Women opened at the Virginia Theatre (now the August Wilson Theatre), where it ran for 137 performances. Based on Louisa May Alcott's classic 1869 semi-autobiographical novel, it focuses on the four March sisters - brassy, tomboy-like, aspiring writer Jo, romantic Meg, pretentious Amy, and kind-hearted Beth - and their beloved Marmee, at home in Concord, Massachusetts while the family patriarch is away serving as a Union Army chaplain during the Civil War. Intercut with the vignettes in which their lives unfold are several recreations of the melodramatic short stories Jo writes in her attic studio. The Broadway cast included Sutton Foster, Maureen McGovern, Janet Carroll, Jenny Powers, Megan McGinnis, and Amy McAlexander.

Today in 1942, the first revival of Porgy and Bess opened at the Majestic Theatre, where it ran for 286 performances. First performed in 1935, with music by George Gershwin, libretto by DuBose Heyward, and lyrics by Ira Gershwin and DuBose Heyward, it was based on DuBose Heyward's novel Porgy and subsequent play of the same title, which he co-wrote with his wife Dorothy Heyward. All three works deal with African-American life in the fictitious Catfish Row in Charleston, South Carolina, in the early 1920s. Originally conceived by George Gershwin as an 'American folk opera', Porgy and Bess premiered in New York in the fall of 1935 and featured an entire cast of classically trained African-American singers-a daring artistic choice at the time.

Today in 1957 Waiting for Godot opened at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre, where it ran for 6 performances. An absurdist play by Samuel Beckett, it revolves around two characters, Vladimir and Estragon, who wait endlessly and in vain for someone named Godot to arrive. Godot's absence, as well as numerous other aspects of the play, have led to many different interpretations since the play's premiere. Since its US premiere in 1956, several notable revivals have been produced, including the 1988 production featuring Robin Williams and Steve Martin, and the 2009 revival starring Nathan Lane and Bill Irwin.

Today in 1903, The Wizard of Oz opened at the Majestic Theatre, where it ran for 293 performances. Based on The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum, which was originally published in 1900, much of the original music was by Paul Tietjens and has been mostly forgotten, although it was still well-remembered and in discussion at MGM in the late 1930s, when the classic film version of the story was made. The main plot of the show, as recounted in newspapers of the time, is Pastoria's attempts to regain the throne from the Wizard of Oz. The original protagonists' search for the Wizard puts them on the wrong side of the law. Since then, many new incarnations have been created, including the 1939 film, and the 2011 West End musical.

Happy Birthday Michael Crawford! In 1981, Crawford starred in the Original London production of Cy Coleman's Barnum (1981) as the illustrious American showman P. T. Barnum. He is best known for starring opposite Sarah Brightman in the original cast of Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Phantom of the Opera as the title character. In 1986, Crawford began his performance in London, continuing on to Broadway in 1988, and then Los Angeles a year later, in 1989. He played the role for 2½ years and over 1,300 performances, winning an Olivier Award (Best Actor in a Musical) and a Tony Award (Best Performance By An Actor in a Lead Role, Musical). Beginning in February 2011, Crawford has played the role of the Wizard in Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice's musical version of The Wizard of Oz at the London Palladium.

Today in 1931, Broadway veteran James Earl Jones was born. He has won Tony awards in 1969 for The Great White Hope and in 1987 for Fences. He has acted in many Shakespearean roles: Othello, King Lear, Oberon in A Midsummer Night's Dream, Abhorson in Measure for Measure, and Claudius in Hamlet. On April 7, 2005, James Earl Jones and Leslie Uggams headed the cast in an African-American Broadway revival version of On Golden Pond, directed by Leonard Foglia and produced by Jeffrey Finn. In February 2008, he starred on Broadway as Big Daddy in a limited-run, all-African-American production of Tennessee Williams's Pulitzer Prize-winning drama Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, directed by Debbie Allen and mounted at the Broadhurst Theatre. In October 2010, Jones returned to the Broadway stage in Alfred Uhry's Driving Miss Daisy along with Vanessa Redgrave at the Golden Theatre. In November 2011, Jones starred in Driving Miss Daisy in London's West End, and on November 12 Jones received his honorary Oscar in front of the audience at the Wyndham's Theatre, which was presented to him by Ben Kingsley.

Today in 1964, Hello Dolly! opened at the St. James Theatre, where it ran for 2844 performances. The show features lyrics and music by Jerry Herman and a book by Michael Stewart, based on Thornton Wilder's 1938 farce The Merchant of Yonkers, which Wilder revised and retitled The Matchmaker in 1955. Hello, Dolly! was first produced on Broadway by David Merrick in 1964, winning the Tony Award for Best Musical and nine other Tonys. The show album Hello, Dolly! An Original Cast Recording was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2002. The show has become one of the most enduring musical theatre hits, enjoying three Broadway revivals and international success. It was also made into a 1969 film that was nominated for seven Academy Awards.