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[0:05] Mark Peikert: Good morning, theater lovers, and happy August.

[0:09] Mark Peikert: I'm Mark Peikert, editor in chief of Playbill, and you're listening to Today in Theatre History for the week of August 17th through the 23rd.

[0:17] Mark Peikert: And we would be remiss were we not to say a very happy birthday to Mae West, born on August 17th.

[0:24] Mark Peikert: We won't tell the year because a lady never reveals her age.

[0:30] Mark Peikert: On August 17th, 1955, a stellar Broadway revival of Thornton Wilder's The Skin of Our Teeth opens, starring George Abbott, Helen Hayes, and Mary Martin.

[0:40] Mark Peikert: The production, originally staged in Paris as part of the Salute to France Project, runs for a limited engagement of 22 performances.

[1:00] Mark Peikert: Conceived by Short and Hairspray songwriters Mark Shaman and Scott Whitman, the cast also includes Brooks Eshmankus, Mary Birdsong, Capathea Jenkins, and Nicole Parker.

[1:13] Mark Peikert: Hello, suckas!

[1:14] Mark Peikert: The review Gay Perry, starring famed speakeasy hostess Texas Guinan and Jack Haley, begins a 181 performance run at the Schubert Theater on August 18, 1925.

[1:42] Mark Peikert: Although Harrison fought with Actors Equity to have British actor Cheryl Kennedy as his Eliza, vocal damage forces her to drop out of the production after the first Broadway preview, and she is replaced by her American-born understudy, Nancy Ringham.

[1:58] Mark Peikert: The Donkey Show, described as a Midsummer Night's Disco, opens in 1999 at New York City's Club El Flamingo.

[2:05] Mark Peikert: Created and directed by Diane Paulus and Randy Wiener, the show sets William Shakespeare's classic comedy A Midsummer Night's Dream in the 1970s disco scene.

[2:14] Mark Peikert: Originally announced as a six-week limited engagement, it runs for six years.

[2:22] Mark Peikert: In 2002, Broadway gets its first revival of The Boys from Syracuse since the 1938 revival.

[2:29] Mark Peikert: The Roundabout Theater Company production stars Tom Hewitt, Aaron Dilley, Lee Wilkoff, and Georgia Ingle.

[2:37] Mark Peikert: On August 19th, 1999, the story of the Kavala Kings hits the scene when Cat and the Kings opens on Broadway.

[2:44] Mark Peikert: The musical tells the story of a talented but non-white young band that couldn't compete with apartheid in Cape Town, South Africa.

[2:51] Mark Peikert: David Kramer directs and musically stages the production that plays the court for 157 performances.

[3:00] Mark Peikert: In 2004, Frank Wildhorn, composer of Jekyll and Hyde, returns to the Gothic world for his musical version of Dracula, in which Tom Hewitt flies eerily about the stage of Broadway's Belasco in pursuit of leading lady Melissa Errico for 157 performances.

[3:19] Mark Peikert: In 2007, a Broadway revival of Grease, starring Max Crumm and Laura Osnes, the winners of the reality TV casting competition Grease: You're the One That I Want, opens at the Brooks Atkinson.

[3:31] Mark Peikert: Directed and choreographed by Kathleen Marshall, the production runs for 554 performances.

[3:39] Mark Peikert: Two months after being forced out of the 85th Street Playhouse, when the theater was closed for violating fire department regulations and operating without a license, Langston Hughes in David Martin's musical, Simply Heavenly, reopens on August 20, 1957, on Broadway at the Playhouse Theatre.

[3:58] Mark Peikert: In 1987, Frank Langella and Joan O'Donnell star as Holmes and Watson in Sherlock's Last Case, which begins a 124 performance run on Broadway.

[4:12] Mark Peikert: On August 21, 1983, La Cage aux Folles opens at Broadway's Palace Theater.

[4:18] Mark Peikert: George Hearn and Jean Barry star in the Jerry Herman and Harvey Fierstein adaptation of the classic French play about a middle-aged homosexual couple, and not only does La Cage win the Tony Award for Best Musical, but all of its subsequent revivals win the Tony Award for Revival as well.

[4:37] Mark Peikert: In 1986, a lot of major Broadway talent converges on Rags, an original musical about immigrants on New York's Lower East Side, which opens today for a disappointing four-performance run.

[4:48] Mark Peikert: Music is by Charles Strouse, lyrics are by Stephen Schwartz, and libretto is by Joseph Stein.

[4:52] Mark Peikert: Opera star Teresa Stratas leads a cast that includes Larry Kurt, Judy Kuhn, Dick Latessa, and Lonnie Price.

[5:02] Mark Peikert: On August 22nd, 1983, Cicely Tyson stars with Peter Gallagher as a tutor in rural Wales in a revival of Emlyn Williams' The Corn Is Green at the Lunt-Fontanne.

[5:15] Mark Peikert: In 1996, Al Pacino directs himself in Eugene O'Neill's Huey at the Circle in the Square Theatre.

[5:22] Mark Peikert: The production runs for 56 sold-out performances.

[5:27] Mark Peikert: On August 23rd, 1920, The Bat, the hugely popular thriller by Mary Roberts Rinehart and Avery Hopwood, opens at the Morosco and goes on to run 867 performances.

[5:42] Mark Peikert: On August 23, 1937, Eva Le Gallienne is Hamlet in a new production of Shakespeare's tragedy, opening at the Cape Playhouse in Massachusetts.

[5:51] Mark Peikert: Also in the cast is future stage legend Uta Hagen, making her professional debut as Ophelia.

[5:59] Mark Peikert: For more theater history, visit Playbill.com.

[6:02] Mark Peikert: And for more great podcasts, visit BroadwayPodcastNetwork.com.