Portal:Theatre

The Blue Flame is a four-act play written by George V. Hobart and John Willard, who revised an earlier version by Leta Vance Nicholson. In 1920, producer Albert H. Woods staged the play on Broadway and on tour across the United States. Ruth Gordon, the main character, is a religious young woman who dies and is revived by her scientist fiancé as a soulless femme fatale. She seduces several men and involves them in crimes, including drug use and murder. In the final act, her death and resurrection are revealed to be a dream. The production starred Theda Bara (pictured), a popular silent film actress who was known for playing similar roles in movies. Critics panned the play, ridiculing the plot, the dialog, and Bara's acting. Theater historian Ward Morehouse called it "one of the worst plays ever written". Bara's movie fame drew large crowds to theaters, and the play was a commercial success, breaking attendance records at some venues. Ruth Gordon was Bara's only Broadway role, and The Blue Flame was one of her last professional acting projects.

• 1 March 1892 – Birth of American playwright Mercedes de Acosta
• 6 March 1853 – Premiere of La traviata by Giuseppe Verdi, one of the most famous and influential opera composers of the 19th century
• 11 March 1959 – Premiere of Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun, the first play performed on Broadway written by an African-American woman
• 14 March 1885 – Premier of Gilbert and Sullivan's comic opera The Mikado at London's Savoy Theatre, where it played 672 performances
• 15 March 1920 – The Blue Flame, considered one of the worst plays ever performed on Broadway, debuts at the Shubert Theatre
• 20 March 1828 – Birth of Henrik Ibsen, often called the "father of modern drama", whose plays challenged Victorian morality
• 22 March 1832 – Death of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (pictured), whose magnum opus Faust was completed the year of his death and published the year after
• 25 March 1875 – Gilbert and Sullivan's comic opera Trial by Jury debuts at London's Royalty Theatre.
• 26 March 1996 – Syrian playwright Saadallah Wannous was the first Arab writer to present the UNESCO address to the International Institute of Theater on International Theater Day

Terry-Thomas (1911–90) was an English comedian and character actor, known to a world-wide audience through his portrayals of upper class cads, toffs and bounders. His dress sense and style were striking, as was the gap of a third of an inch between his two front teeth. He worked his way through uncredited film parts in the 1930s before wartime service with Entertainments National Service Association and Stars in Battledress led to a post-war career on stage and then into How Do You View? (1949), the first comedy series on British television. He appeared in British films such as Private's Progress (1956), Blue Murder at St Trinian's (1957), and Carlton-Browne of the F.O. (1959). During the early 1960s he worked extensively in Hollywood, providing a coarser version of his screen persona in films such as Bachelor Flat (1962), It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963) and How to Murder Your Wife (1965). After being diagnosed with Parkinson's disease in 1971, he spent much of his fortune on medical treatments. He lived in poverty towards the end of his life, existing on charitable hand-outs, before a 1989 charity gala in his honour brought him financial comfort for the remaining months before his death.

• ... that Denise Stoklos's "essential theatre" involves minimizing her acting methods while maximizing "the power of drama"?
• ... that at New York City's Apollo Theater, amateurs could be swept off the stage?
• ... that although only one member was fluent in English, the cast of The Mongol Khan learned the entire script before the play's West End run?
• ... that Anne Cooke Reid founded the first Black summer theater in the United States?
• ... that the 1966 production of Peter Handke's Offending the Audience, directed by Claus Peymann at the Theater am Turm, has been described as "the beginning of modern theatre"?
• ... that by 2013 the Auto-Vue was eastern Washington's last operating drive-in theater?

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