Donna McKechnie will standby for Chita Rivera in The Visit! The original Cassie and the original Velma Kelly - it's almost too much.
TODAY IN THEATRE HISTORY: "It all began tonight" in 1957 at the Winter Garden Theatre as West Side Story opens. The Leonard Bernstein, Stephen Sondheim and Arthur Laurents classic is based on Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, but has New York teenage gangs pitted against each other instead of Verona's dueling families. It includes such classic songs as "I Feel Pretty" and "Somewhere." The show is choreographed and staged by Peter Gennaro and Jerome Robbins, who came up with the show's original 1949 concept: "East Side Story." The piece evolved, with new music, a new location and a new ethnicity to become what it is tonight. Larry Kert, Carol Lawrence and Chita Rivera star.
TODAY IN THEATRE HISTORY: In 1975, the Kander and Ebb musical Chicago comes to New York City on Broadway at the 46th Street Theatre. Director-choreographer Bob Fosse brings to life the story of a chorus girl who gets away with murder, literally. The cast features Gwen Verdon, Chita Rivera and Jerry Orbach. It will run just two years in its original production, but a 1996 revival will run more than fifteen years.
TODAY IN THEATRE HISTORY: In 1993, John Kander, Fred Ebb and Terrence McNally work their magic on Kiss of the Spider Woman, based on Manuel Puig's novel about two men confined in a prison cell. Harold Prince directs Chita Rivera, Brent Carver and Anthony Crivello in the production that lasts 906 performances at the Broadhurst Theatre. It will go on to win seven Tony Awards, including Best Musical
TODAY IN THEATRE HISTORY: In 1960, the Elvis Presley phenomenon gets spoofed in the lighthearted musical Bye Bye Birdie, with a score by Charles Strouse and Lee Adams. Dick Van Dyke plays the put-upon manager of rocker Conrad Birdie, who is trying to get him to give "One Last Kiss" to a fan on the Ed Sullivan show before he's drafted. The show opens at the Martin Beck Theatre today, and runs 607 performances.
TODAY IN THEATRE HISTORY: In 2003, Broadway gets to "Be Italian!" again as a revival of the Maury Yeston-Arthur Kopit musical Nine, opens at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre. Antonio Banderas leads a cast of more than a dozen women, including Chita Rivera, Laura Benanti, Jane Krakowski and Mary Stuart Masterson. The production will go on to win the Tony Award for Best Revival of a Musical.