Beware the Ides of March
March 15th is an interesting and important day, not just for theater but in world history.
Some of the interesting historical events that occurred on this date were
- Czar Nicholas II abdicated in 1917, ending a 304 year run for the Romanov dynasty
- There was a cyclone in Samoa in 1889 that sunk three German Navel ships and three American navel ships.
- The world record for rain fall in a 24-hour period was set in 1952 on Reunion Island in the Indian Ocean.
- Finally, it’s National Shoe Day.
March 15th is also a famous day in theater. It is even cited by the character of the soothsayer in Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar Act 1 Scene 2: “Beware the Ides of March”. This particular warning went unheeded and Caesar paid for it with his life, so the saying goes.
But it’s not the only reason March 15 is famous. My Fair Lady opened on Broadway in 1956, and the musical Purlie opened on Broadway in 1970.
Theater on TV
As far as theater goes, not all the events that happened on this day were joyous ones (like opening nights).
The most important, and one of the saddest, was when CBS cancelled the Ed Sullivan show on March 15 in 1971. No show brought more positive attention to theater than the Sullivan show. It ran from 1948 to 1971. Whenever he could, he had appearances by the original Broadway casts doing numbers from then-current productions.
You can still see some of them on YouTube. Just look for Ed Sullivan Broadway. My favorite is Julie Andrews and Richard Burton doing, “What Do The Simple Folk Do” from Camelot.
Please check it out. We all need some cheering up.
And I’m challenging theater folks to come up with a 21st century Ed Sullivan Show. Could we even do it with current AEA (the Actor’s Union) regulations?
Something to think about…