#TiTH 1957: Gore Vidal’s Visit to a Small Planet, about a man claiming to be an alien passing judgement on Earth, opens @ Booth Theatre.

Today in Theatre History, 2003: Whoopi Goldberg & Charles S. Dutton star in a Broadway revival of August Wilson’s Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.

Today in Theatre History 1951: Maureen Stapleton is a lonely widow pining for her dead husband in Tennessee Williams’ The Rose Tattoo. #TiTH

#TiTH, 2002: Bea Arthur (TV’s Maude) opens her solo show, Bea Arthur on Broadway — Just Between Friends at the Booth Theatre.

#TiTH 1959: Rashomon – based on the Kurosawa film of the same name and starring Claire Bloom & Rod Steiger – opens at the Music Box Theatre.

#TiTH 1905: Opening night of Buster Brown, based on the comic strip about a kid and his dog, and starring “dwarf actor Master Gabriel.”

#TiTH Long-running Off-Broadway revue, Jaques Brel is Alive and Well and Living In Paris opens at the Village Gate theater.

#TiTH, 1900: The Wizard of Oz, with music by Paul Tietjens and book & lyrics by L. Frank Baum himself, makes its Broadway debut.

#TiTH 1879: A big day for musical theatre in the US as Gilbert & Arthur Sullivan’s H.M.S. Pinafore premiers at the Standard Theatre.