{"id":2107,"date":"2007-12-28T00:10:36","date_gmt":"2007-12-28T07:10:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stephendanko.com\/blog\/2007\/12\/28\/a-playbill-in-the-attic\/"},"modified":"2016-05-25T15:32:18","modified_gmt":"2016-05-25T22:32:18","slug":"a-playbill-in-the-attic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stephendanko.com\/blog\/2107","title":{"rendered":"A Playbill in the Attic"},"content":{"rendered":"

While cleaning out the attic at the family home in Albany, New York, I found this copy of Playbill<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\"1776<\/a><\/p>\n

The Playbill <\/em>is dated March 1971 (Volume 8, Issue 3) and includes the program for the musical 1776<\/em> which played at the St. James Theater at 246 West 44th Street\u00c2\u00a0(between 7th & 8th Avenue) in New York City.<\/p>\n

1776<\/em> opened at the St. James Theater on 28 Dec 1970. It’s interesting to note that the musical to appear at the St. James just prior to 1776<\/em> was Hello Dolly!<\/em> which played at the St. James from 16 Jan 1964 – 27 Dec 1970, a total of 2844 performances.<\/p>\n

1776<\/em> originally opened at the 42nd Street Theater from 16 Mar 1969 – 27 Dec 1970, played at the St. James from 28 Dec 1970 – 24 Apr 1971, and then moved to the Majestic Theater from 27 Apr 1971 – 13 Feb 1972, a total of 1217 performances. It won three Tony Awards in 1969 for Best Musical, Best Featured Actor (Ronald Holgate for his portrayal of Richard Henry Lee), and Best Direction of a Musical (Peter Hunt).<\/p>\n

I obtained this copy of Playbill<\/em> when I attended a performance of 1776 <\/em>with the English Club at Vincentian Institute High School during my Sophomore year. Though I don’t know the exact date I attended the performance, this issue of Playbill\u00c2\u00a0proves that I saw this performance in March 1971. Notable actors in the performance I saw were William Daniels as John Adams and Howard Da Silva as Benjamin Franklin.<\/p>\n

The previous year, I attended a revival performance of The Front Page<\/em> with the Vincentian English Club at the Ethyl Barrymore Theater in New York City. During that revival, the play\u00c2\u00a0ran from 18 Oct 18 1969 – 28 Feb 1970. I don’t know\u00c2\u00a0the date\u00c2\u00a0I attended the performance and I don’t have a copy of the Playbill<\/em>, but I probably saw The Front Page<\/em> at the end of the run in February 1970. I do remember that the role of Hildy Johnson was played by Bert Convy.<\/p>\n

For other posts on the Vincentian Institute, see:<\/p>\n