This transcript was automatically generated and might contain errors.

[0:05] Mark Peikert: Good morning, theater lover, and happy May 8th.

[0:08] Mark Peikert: I'm Mark Peikert, editor-in-chief of Playbill, and you are listening to Today in Theatre History.

[0:16] Mark Peikert: The Theatre Guild presented W. Somerset Maugham's adaptation of The Mask and the Face in 1933. Among the cast of the five-week run were Leo G. Carroll, Shirley Booth, Humphrey Bogart, and Judith Anderson.

[0:34] Mark Peikert: In 1956, John Osborne's Look Back in Anger struck a blow against complacency. Kenneth Haig played an angry young man who lashes out at his wife, Mary Ur, and best friend, Alan Bates. Tony Richardson staged the production at the Royal Court Theatre in London.

[0:52] Mark Peikert: A funny thing happened on the way to the forum in 1962, especially with Zero Mostel as your leader. Broadway's Alvin Theater was filled with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, and George Abbott directed the 964 performances. The production won six Tony Awards, including Best Musical, and Mostel and co-star Jack Guilford reprised their roles in the 1966 film adaptation.

[1:19] Mark Peikert: Famous divorcees Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton played fabulous divorcees, Amanda Prynt and Elliot Chase, in the 1983 Broadway revival of Noel Coward's Private Lives. With poor reviews and Taylor missing performances due to bronchitis and laryngitis, it ran only 63 performances. The behind-the-scenes story of that production was the basis of the TV biopic Burton and Taylor, starring Helena Bonham Carter and Dominic West.

[1:49] Mark Peikert: Broadway's Ritz Theater became center court when David Wiltse's play about tennis, Doubles, was served up in 1985. Playing the middle-aged players were John Cullum, Ron Liebman, Austin Pendleton, and Tony Roberts. The play stayed aloft 277 performances before game, set, match.

[2:12] Mark Peikert: In 2008, The 39 Steps, a tongue-in-cheek stage adaptation of the Alfred Hitchcock thriller, opened at Broadway's Court Theater, following a successful run at the Roundabout Theater Company. This would be its second of an eventual three Broadway homes, before it transferred to Off Broadway's New World Stages, and eventually the now-defunct Union Square Theatre.

[2:37] Mark Peikert: For more theater history, visit Playbill.com. And for more great podcasts, visit BroadwayPodcastNetwork.com.