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[0:05] Mark Peikert: Good morning, theater lover.

[0:07] Mark Peikert: I'm Mark Peikert, editor-in-chief of Playbill, and you are listening to Today in Theatre History for the week of August 31st through September 6th.

[0:18] Mark Peikert: On August 31st, 1897, John Drew and Billie Burke, in her Broadway debut, are the stars of the new play, My Wife, opening at the Empire Theater.

[0:28] Mark Peikert: There are 129 performances.

[0:50] Mark Peikert: In 2011, a revised staging of George Gershwin, Ira Gershwin, Dorothy Hayward, and DuBose Hayward's American folk opera Porgy and Bess, starring Audra McDonald and Norm Lewis, opens at the American Repertory Theater in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

[1:04] Mark Peikert: The production later transfers to Broadway and wins Tony Awards for Best Actress in a Musical and Best Revival of a Musical.

[1:14] Mark Peikert: September 1, 1924, John Colton and Clemence Randolph adapt the W. Somerset Maugham story, Miss Thompson, as the hit play Rain about tough prostitute Sadie Thompson, played by Gene Eagles, who battles a bigoted missionary in the steamy jungle.

[1:29] Mark Peikert: It runs for 648 performances and is adapted several times as a film.

[1:37] Mark Peikert: September 2nd, 1924, the operetta Rose Marie premieres.

[1:41] Mark Peikert: Rudolph Friml and Herbert Stothart wrote the music, and Oscar Hammerstein II and Otto Harbach, the book and lyrics.

[1:48] Mark Peikert: It runs 557 performances and enjoys a long life in tours and regional productions.

[1:58] Mark Peikert: September 3rd, 1923, marks opening night of Poppy, the first book musical that stars comedian W.C. Fields.

[2:05] Mark Peikert: It runs 346 performances at Broadway's Apollo.

[2:12] Mark Peikert: 1924 sees the opening night of the popular Maxwell Anderson and Lawrence Stallings drama, What Price Glory, about two tough-as-nails soldiers who are perpetual rivals in war and love.

[2:23] Mark Peikert: The play runs 435 performances at the Plymouth.

[2:30] Mark Peikert: In 1929, the Oscar Hammerstein II operetta Sweet Adeline opens, starring Helen Morgan in the title role.

[2:39] Mark Peikert: It runs 234 performances at Hammerstein's Theater and introduces the song Why Was I Born.

[2:49] Mark Peikert: September 4th, 1922, bringing the early 20s fad of musicals about plucky heroines like Sally, Irene, and Mary to its climax, J. Fred Coots, Eddie Dowling, Cyrus Wood, and Raymond Clagett put them all together in a show called Sally, which is yet another hit, and runs 313 performances.

[3:13] Mark Peikert: In 2003, Nathan Lane plays blacklisted writer Dalton Trumbo in the solo drama Trumbo, opening off-Broadway at the West Side Theater.

[3:22] Mark Peikert: In the months to come, numerous other stage and film stars take the role for short engagements, including F. Murray Abraham, Brian Dennehy, Gore Vidal, Richard Dreyfuss, and Roger Rees.

[3:36] Mark Peikert: September 5th, 1905, sees the U.S. premiere of George Bernard Shaw's Man and Superman, which runs 192 performances at the Hudson.

[3:49] Mark Peikert: In 1934, Sophie Tucker gets a black eye when she steps between two women fighting over her autograph outside the Empire Theater in London.

[4:06] Mark Peikert: September 6th, 1919, after 30 days, 37 closed productions, and 16 prevented openings, the Actor's Equity Strike is settled at 3 a.m.

[4:17] Mark Peikert: The strike, which began on August 7th, is the longest in American theater history.

[4:25] Mark Peikert: 1979 sees a revival of the musical Peter Pan, opening at the Lunt-Fontanne Theater with Sandy Duncan as Peter and George Rose as Captain Hook.

[4:34] Mark Peikert: It runs 554 performances, more than three times as long as the original.

[5:22] Mark Peikert: And for more great podcasts, visit BroadwayPodcastNetwork.com.