1907 The Gay White Way, a musical revue, opens at the Casino Theatre for a then-healthy run of 105 performances. Blanche Ring and Katherine Bell are featured.

1914 Broadway leading man Alfred Drake is born. Among classic roles he will create are Curly in Oklahoma!, Fred Graham in Kiss Me, Kate, and Hajj in Kismet.

1943 The unlikely collaboration of Kurt Weill, Ogden Nash, and S. J. Perelman results in a hit musical, One Touch of Venus, about a man who brings a statue of the Roman goddess of love to life. Mary Martin plays Venus in her first starring role.

1948 Love Life opens at the 46th Street Theatre. Billed as "A Vaudeville," it contains sketches about love stretching from the 18th century to the present. A lot of talent is involved with music by Kurt Weill, lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner, directed by Elia Kazan, choreography by Michael Kidd, and stars Nanette Fabray and Ray Middleton.

1975 Kevin Kline and Patti LuPone, both members of the first graduating class of the drama department at the Juilliard School, star in The Acting Company's production of The Robber Bridegroom at the Harkness Theatre. The musical is based on the 1942 novella of the same name by Eudora Welty. It transfers to Broadway at the Biltmore Theatre in 1976.

1982 The Winter Garden Theatre hosts the opening of what will become one of the most successful musicals in the history of Broadway, Cats. Andrew Lloyd Webber's rendition of the T.S. Eliot collection of poems, Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats, boasts advance sales of $6.2 million before it even opens. The show has sound and special effects galore, no dialogue, and a star in the making, Betty Buckley, singing its most memorable tune, "Memory." Cats wins seven Tony Awards and plays in more than 250 cities around the world. By the time it closes September 10, 2000, the production has played 7,485 performances.

1996 The Circle Repertory Company, having lived out its 28-year life to great success, folds. The company is remembered for showcasing the work of such distinguished American playwrights as Albert Innaurato, Edward J. Moore, and Lanford Wilson, who was also a co-founder.

1999 Susan Stroman and John Weidman premiere their propulsive new "dance play" Contact at Lincoln Center Theater's Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater. The show, which breaks new ground as a hybrid theatrical genre, stars Karen Ziemba, Boyd Gaines, and newcomer Deborah Yates. It transfers to LCT's Vivian Beaumont Theatre for a Broadway run the following year, winning the 2000 Tony Award for Best Musical.

2001 The "bong and dance" musical Reefer Madness, based on the cult anti-marijuana film of 1936, opens Off-Broadway, starring Christian Campbell, Gregg Edelman, and Michele Pawk.

2008 In the first Broadway revival of Robert Bolt’s A Man for All Seasons, Frank Langella plays the 16th-century statesman Sir Thomas More, who stood up to King Henry VIII in his conflicts with the church. Doug Hughes directs the production at the Roundabout Theatre Company's American Airlines Theatre.

2010 Donald Margulies' Tony Award-nominated drama Time Stands Still transfers to the Cort Theatre, following a spring 2010 run at Manhattan Theatre Club's Samuel J. Friedman Theatre. Christina Ricci joins original cast members Laura Linney, Brian d'Arcy James, and Eric Bogosian.

More of Today’s Birthdays: June Allyson (1917–2006), Reid Shelton (1924–1997), Abe Jacob (b. 1944), William Parry (b. 1947), Toni Braxton (b. 1967), Tim Minchin (b. 1975)