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[0:05] Mark Peikert: Good morning, theater lover. I'm Mark Peikert, editor-in-chief of Playbill, and you are listening to Today in Theatre History for the week of September 7th through September 13th.

[0:16] Mark Peikert: September 7th, 1921 sees the first stage adaptation of the Edgar Rice Burroughs novel Tarzan of the Apes, a hit at the Broadhurst, starring Ronald Adair as Tarzan.

[0:30] Mark Peikert: In 1928, Sophie Treadwell's expressionist drama Mackinaw opens on Broadway at the Plymouth. The play is based on the case of Ruth Snyder, who was executed at Sing Sing in January 1928 for the murder of her husband.

[0:43] Mark Peikert: Zita Johan stars, and the cast also includes the Broadway debut of a young actor named Clark Gable.

[0:52] Mark Peikert: In 1949, Mae West stars in a hit revival of her own play, Diamond Lil, for a 182 performance run at the Plymouth.

[1:03] Mark Peikert: In 2008, Rent ends its 12-year run at the Nederlander. The Pulitzer Prize-winning and Tony Award-winning rock musical by the late lyricist librettist composer Jonathan Larson played 5,123 performances and 16 previews.

[1:29] Mark Peikert: It stars Grant Mitchell and Ruth Shepley. The show runs 167 performances.

[1:51] Mark Peikert: In 1932, Jean Bart's melodrama The Man Who Reclaimed His Head opens on Broadway at the Broadhurst. Claude Rains, Stuart Casey, and Jean Arthur star in the play about a brilliant but hideously deformed man who is driven to madness when he finds out his employer is having an affair with his wife.

[2:07] Mark Peikert: It runs 28 performances.

[2:12] Mark Peikert: The wartime review Laugh Time opens in 1943 for a 126 performance run with an enviable cast featuring Ethel Waters, Bert Wheeler, Faye Ray, and the dance team of Buck and Bubbles.

[2:27] Mark Peikert: In 1953, legendary flop musical Carnival in Flanders opens at the New Century Theater. Despite a score by Jimmy Van Heusen and Johnny Burke, a book by Preston Sturges, and a famous leading man in the person of John Ray, the show ekes out a six-performance run.

[2:43] Mark Peikert: Notably, leading lady Dolores Gray wins the 1954 Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical, the briefest run to be so honored.

[2:54] Mark Peikert: Jazz titans Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, and Count Basie make their Broadway debuts in The Concert at the Euris Theater in 1975. The sold-out two-week engagement features Sinatra and Fitzgerald singing against the backdrop of Basie's 18-man band, with 20 additional strings added for Sinatra's set.

[3:16] Mark Peikert: September 9th, 1970, at today's matinee, Hello Dolly surpasses My Fair Lady as the longest-running Broadway musical in history. A celebration at Sardi's follows the performance.

[3:31] Mark Peikert: In 1975, as part of its season celebrating the United States Bicentennial, the Kennedy Center presents a revival of The Skin of Our Teeth on Broadway at the Mark Hellinger Theater. Directed by Jose Quintero, the production stars Elizabeth Ashley as Sabina and Alfred Drake and Martha Scott as Mr. and Mrs. Antrobus.

[3:49] Mark Peikert: Despite rave reviews for Ashley, the revival proves to be a disappointment and closes after seven performances.

[4:05] Mark Peikert: It opens on Broadway the following year, winning LaShawn's The Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical.

[4:14] Mark Peikert: September 10th, 1942. Josephine Bentham and Herschel Williams' comedy Janie begins a 642 performance run at Henry Miller's Theater. Antoinette Perry directs the play about three teenage girls who throw a secret party for soldiers at a neighboring army camp.

[4:34] Mark Peikert: In 2012, Christopher Curtis and Thomas Meehan's musical Chaplin, depicting the life of screen legend Charlie Chaplin and chronicling the rise and fall of the infamous Little Tramp, opens on Broadway at the Barrymore for a 135 performance run. Rob McClure stars in the title role, opposite Aaron Mackey as his wife, Christiane Noll as his mother, and Jin Kalela as villainous gossip columnist Hedda Hopper.

[5:00] Mark Peikert: On September 11, 1912, Jane Cowell becomes a star while performing in Within the Law. The play is about a woman wrongfully accused of theft. It is also the premier production at the new Eltinge Theater on 42nd Street.

[5:17] Mark Peikert: In 1959, the now landmark statue of song and danceman George M. Cohan is unveiled in Times Square, opposite the Palace Theater.

[5:28] Mark Peikert: In 2011, Sweet and Sad, the world premiere drama by Richard Nelson, set on the 10th anniversary of 9/11, has a timely opening night off-Broadway at the Public. Nelson revisits the Apple Family, first seen in his 2010 play, That Hopey Changey Thing, as they reflect on America a decade after the events of 9/11.

[5:50] Mark Peikert: In 2011, The Select, The Sun Also Rises, Elevator Repair Service's dramatic look at Ernest Hemingway's post-war classic opens off-Broadway at the New York Theater Workshop. ERS founder John Collins directs the three-hour and 15-minute ensemble work that pairs the novel down to much of Hemingway's dialogue.

[6:14] Mark Peikert: In 2014, the Broadway premiere of Kenneth Lonergan's 1996 drama This Is Our Youth, starring Michael Cera, Kieran Culkin, and Tavi Gevinson, opens at the Cort.

[6:27] Mark Peikert: September 12, 1866, the Broadway musical is born. The Black Crook, a musical extravaganza featuring a melodramatic plot and scantily dressed ballerinas who serve as chorus girls, opens at Niblo's Garden. Tickets range from five cents to $1.50.

[6:43] Mark Peikert: It is the first Broadway show to run for more than a year. In 1954, a musical called The Girl in Pink Tights, which is based on the story of the show's creation, opens on Broadway.

[6:53] Mark Peikert: Many other influences created the musical as it is known today, but Black Crook remains the consensus earliest model.

[7:04] Mark Peikert: In 1960, the old Mansfield Theater is rechristened with its current name, The Brooks Atkinson. A show produced by David Merrick, Vintage 60, is the first to open there.

[7:17] Mark Peikert: In 2002, the ragtime team of Stephen Flaherty, Lynn Ahrens, and Terrence McNally re-team for the off-Broadway musical A Man of No Importance at Lincoln Center Theater's Mitzi E. Newhouse. Starring Roger Reese as bus conductor Alfie Byrne, it runs through the end of the year.

[7:37] Mark Peikert: 2014 sees the New York City premiere of Me, Myself and I, Edward Albee's play, touching on some of his favorite ideas: parenting, children, identity, reality, opening at Playwright's Horizons. The play is directed by Emily Mann, who staged the 2008 world premiere of the McCarter Theater, and stars Elizabeth Ashley, Zachary Booth, Brian Murray, Natalia Payne, Stephen Payne, and Preston Sadlier.

[8:04] Mark Peikert: In 2011, the Kennedy Center's critically acclaimed production of Follies opens at Broadway's Marquee. The cast is headed by Bernadette Peters, Jan Maxwell, Danny Burstein, and Ron Rains, with Elaine Paige as Carlotta.

[8:20] Mark Peikert: September 3, 1978, Ernest Thompson's On Golden Pond debuts off-Broadway at the Hudson Theater Guild. It transfers to Broadway the following year and, in 1981, becomes a popular film, featuring father and daughter, Henry and Jane Fonda.

[8:38] Mark Peikert: In 1983, Yul Brynner plays his 4,000th performance of the title role in The King and I. The production is playing at the Pantages Theater in Los Angeles.

[8:49] Mark Peikert: In 2009, in a dramatic reversal, producers of the Tony-winning Broadway musical Avenue Q take to the stage of The Golden on what was to have been the show's closing night to announce that it would take the unusual step of moving off-Broadway and reopen at New World Stages.

[9:08] Mark Peikert: And in 2014, Will Swenson, Melissa Errico, and John Balman take a swing at Bull Durham, the world premiere musical opening at the Alliance Theatre in Atlanta. Based on the 1988 film about the world of minor league baseball, the musical features a book by original screenwriter Ron Shelton and music and lyrics by Susan Werner.

[9:29] Mark Peikert: For more theater history, visit Playbill.com. And for more great podcasts, visit BroadwayPodcastNetwork.com.