No One Mourns the Self-Made Thursday Headlines

 

Courtesy Hippodrome Broadway Series.

You know, I've never thought about it until now, but it must be a bitch for the woman playing Elphaba to wear all that green body paint for approximately eight shows a week.

Notable Oct. 30 debuts include:

Caesar and Cleopatra, which opened in 1906 for a short-lived run at the New Amsterdam. This was the full-fledged debut of George Bernard Shaw's play. It starred Johnston Forbes-Robertson and Gertrude Elliott, who reprised their roles for a 1913 Broadway revival.

Courtesy YouTube.

Seventh Heaven, which opened at the Booth in 1922. It ran for nearly two years. A Paris sewer worker (George Gaul) protects and falls for a down-and-out young prostitute (Helen Menken). The man, Chico, marries Diane before heading off to fight in World War I. Seventh Heaven was adapted into a movie in 1927 (winning three of the first Academy Awards) and 1937, then as a flop musical in 1955.

Courtesy YouTube.

Six Characters in Search of an Author, which opened in 1922 at the now-demolished Princess. This was the American premiere of Luigi Pirandello's play where fiction invades reality (or vice-versa?).

Panama Hattie, which opened in 1940 at what is now the Richard Rodgers. The fourth of five Cole Porter-Ethel Merman musicals in just over eight years, not to mention Merman's eighth Broadway show in just over a decade, Hattie had Ethel as a nightclub owner and entertainer who not only becomes a wife and stepmother but thwarts terrorism at the Panama Canal. Not bad for a party girl.

Courtesy YouTube.

Lost in the Stars, which opened in 1949 at the Music Box. Kurt Weill and Maxwell Anderson teamed up for this musical adaptation of Cry, the Beloved Country. It was Weill's last completed Broadway show, overlooked at the fourth Tony Awards in favor of the original production of South Pacific.

Courtesy YouTube.

Major Barbara, which was revived in 1956 at first what is now the Al Hirschfeld before continuing at the now-demolished Morosco. Shaw again, this time concerning a noblewoman devoted to the Salvation Army (in this production, Glynis Johns), the arms manufacturer father (Charles Laughton, who also directed) whose money she ultimately accepts for the good of the Army, and her fiance (Burgess Meredith). The cast also included Cornelia Otis Skinner, Eli Wallach, and John Astin.

Travesties, which opened in 1975 at the Ethel Barrymore. Tom Stoppard won his second of five Tonys for Best Play for imagining what might have happened if and when James Joyce (James Booth), Vladimir Lenin (Harry Towb), and Tristan Tzara (Tim Curry) all crossed paths with British consular official Henry Carr (John Wood, who also won the Tony) in 1917 Zurich.

Wicked, which opened in 2003 at the Gershwin. The damn thing just keeps on going.

Courtesy YouTube.

Well, I'm still two weeks behind. Let's see if I can finally bridge the gap before next Thursday.