On This day 20th September

On this day 20th September

1938 Hurricane on Broadway

 In mid-September 1999, New York experiences the effect of a hurricane on Broadway. Ethel Barrymore has a similar experience in 1938 on this date. It takes her 45 minutes to get from her hotel to the theatre, which is only seven blocks away, because of the great New England hurricane. She is performing in Whiteoaks at the Plymouth Theatre in Boston. Even after her unsteady arrival, the show is still delayed for an hour because there is a gap on the roof from where the skylight has blown off that has to be covered. The Producer's Credo, "The show must go on!" (which, by the way, belongs solely to the producer, not to the actor as history has it) probably didn't ring any more true than on this date in theatre history.

1966 Annie Get Your Gun

Following a hit run at the New York State Theater and a national tour, Ethel Merman returns to Broadway as Annie Oakley in a revival of Annie Get Your Gun, playing the same role she originated 20 years earlier. In honor of the revival, composer Irving Berlin writes a new song for the musical called "Old Fashioned Wedding,"

1990 Postal Service Honors Composers

The United States Postal Service honors nine Broadway composers and/or lyricists by unveiling the Broadway Songwriters postage stamp series at the Broadhurst Theatre. The six stamp designs include composer Richard Rodgers and lyricist Oscar Hammerstein II (pictured together), lyricist Alan Jay Lerner and composer Frederick Loewe (together), composer George Gershwin and lyricist Ira Gershwin (together), lyricist Lorenz Hart, composer-lyricist Meredith Willson, and composer-lyricist Frank Loesser.

1999 Kander & Ebb Musical Opens

The Kander & Ebb musical The Visit opens a tryout at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago, starring Chita Rivera and John McMartin. The show finally arrives on Broadway 14 years later, with Rivera starring opposite Roger Rees.