April 8 was my sister Nancy’s birthday show and we dedicated an entire Stars in the House to her. It was fabulous! I peppered it with stars she’s obsessed with, like Judy Kuhn, whom we saw back in 1987 when we snagged tickets to the Tony Awards dress rehearsal. If you don’t know, that was the year Judy starred as Cosette in Les Misérables as well as Bella in Rags. Nancy and I also recalled the creepy man who approached us as we were waiting in line to get into the theater.

Following its London debut, Claude-Michel Schönberg, Richard Maltby, Jr., and Alain Boubil’s Miss Saigon opened at the Broadway Theatre April 11, 1991. The production played 19 previews and 4,092 performances before closing January 28, 2001. The musical earned 11 Tony Award nominations and won three, most notably with Lea Salonga becoming the first Asian performer to win a Tony for Best Actress in a Musical.

Plus: April 8, 2021, was proclaimed “André De Shields Appreciation Day” by NY State Senator Brad Hoylman. But really, isn’t that every day?

Read on for more theatre headlines you may have missed in today’s news.

Asian productions of Broadway hits continue to please both in-person audiences—and those catching footage while viewing from abroad. The Korean-language production of Wicked has released a pair of clips featuring its rotating casts at the Blue Square Theatre in Seoul, South Korea.

Tired of watching people on the silver screen butcher a role you were born to play? Are you a fan of glamorous, old Hollywood? Try out a digital theatrical experience unlike any other in Broadway Murder Mystery’s Terror in Tinseltown, where audiences can choose to be a part of the cast or enjoy the show as an armchair detective.

UPCOMING CAST RECORDINGS

Sutton Foster|Bring Me to Light, a concert filmed live at City Center featuring the two-time Tony winner, will premiere April 28 at 7 PM ET, with on-demand viewing available through May 31.

1947 The first Tony Awards ceremony is held at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York. Thirteen awards are presented to the likes of Helen Hayes, Ingrid Bergman, Fredric March, José Ferrer, Agnes de Mille, Kurt Weill, and Elia Kazan. No Best Play or Best Musical category yet exists, but the Best Author award goes to a young Arthur Miller for All My Sons. No medallions yet either; men get engraved cigarette lighters or money clips, women get compacts.

As a ghost light illuminated the bare stage of Broadway’s St. James Theatre, pre-show audience chatter began to fill the house for the first time in over a year. Familiar faces, now behind masks, reconnected from a social distance, sharing anecdotes about working from home and the last time they had been in an auditorium.

Anthony Ramos, soon to be on big (and small) screens in the upcoming In the Heights movie, has released a new single, “Say Less.” The song is written and performed by Ramos, with his In the Heights co-star Melissa Barrera joining him on screen for the music video; watch above.