On April 29, 1979, a new play opened on Broadway at the Palace Theater. It was called Break a Leg and it was written by Ira Levin whose previous play, Deathtrap, had been a fairly substantial hit, running 1,793 performances followed by touring productions and regional mountings. That's a damn good run. For comparison, the original version of The Odd Couple ran 964 performances and the original Death of a Salesman ran 742.
Break a Leg starred Julie Harris, Jack Weston and René Auberjonois and it was directed by Charles Nelson Reilly. It did not do quite as well as Mr. Levin's previous play. Break a Leg opened and closed the same night — Sunday, April 29, 1979. The following Thursday evening, Mr. Reilly appeared as a guest on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson…