An opera is, technically speaking, a stage production in which all, or essentially all, dialogue is sung. This is distinct from musical theatre, in which songs are combined with normally spoken dialogue.
Cyndi Lauper wrote both the score and the libretto for Broadway’s 2013 musical Kinky Boots. She won the Tony for Best Original Score, making her the first (and so far only) woman to win the award alone, all by herself.
The Marines’ Hymn is the oldest official song in the United States military. Some of the lyrics were popular phrases before the song was written (From the Halls of Montezuma, to the Shores of Tripoli). The author of the lyrics is unknown. Legend has it that it was penned by a Marine on duty in Mexico. The music is from the Gendarmes’ Duet from an 1867 revision of the 1859 opera Geneviève de Brabant by Jacques Offenbach, which debuted in Paris in 1859.
Lyndon Johnson is also the only US President since Truman not to have met with Queen Elizabeth II. Coincidence…?
In play:
Canadian actress Geneviève Bujold was originally cast as Capt. Kathryn Janeway on Star Trek: Voyager, but after two days’ filming the show’s producers released her from her contract - reportedly due to her stiffness in the role, and discomfort with the “technobabble” dialogue - and cast Kate Mulgrew instead.
Footage of Bujold as Janeway was later released: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8SIZcDWKyw0
Perhaps, but I think not. 
I don’t see how that would have worked. Geneviève Bujold is over ten years older than Kate Mulgrew. Besides, like Captain James T. Kirk, Kate Mulgrew was born in Iowa. Only about 100 miles NE from Kirk’s birthplace. gMap here — Google Maps.
Mulgrew auditioned in person for the Janeway role on the exact same day that Bujold had been selected for it. From EH’s post, we know what happened.
Mulgrew made history in the Star Trek franchise when she became the first female captain as a series regular in a leading role.
ETA: that’s my play. Please ignore the commentary. Thank you.
Geneviève, the fifth century saint who is the patroness of Paris, was persecuted during her life and after death. She encountered opposition and criticism for her charitable activities, and her frequent visions of heavenly saints and angels. When she reported her visions and prophecies, some considered her an impostor or hypocrite, and conspired to drown her in a lake. Her relics were publicly burnt at the Place de Grève in 1793 during the French Revolution.
Trading Spaces is a long-running reality series, airing on the cable network TLC. In each episode, two sets of neighbors are given two or three days to remodel a room in each others’ homes; each team is assigned an interior designer, who creates the remodeling design and oversees the work.
The show originally ran from 2000 to 2008, and a revival of the show began airing in 2018. Paige Davis has acted as host since the show’s second season; many designers have appeared on the show, including Genevieve Gorder, Hildi Santos-Tomas, Doug Wilson, and Vern Yip. Ty Pennington was the show’s carpenter in its early seasons, before leaving the show to host Extreme Makeover: Home Edition.
Trading Places (1983) was a comedy film starring Eddie Murphy, Dan Aykroyd, Jamie Lee Curtis, Denholm Elliott, Ralph Bellamy, and Don Ameche. The storyline is often called a modern take on Mark Twain’s classic 19th-century novel The Prince and the Pauper. Denholm Elliott and Jamie Lee Curtis won the awards for Best Actor in a Supporting Role and Best Actress in a Supporting Role, respectively, at the 37th British Academy Film Awards.
In Italy Trading Places has become a Christmas eve classic, being broadcast by Italian television every year, from December 24, 1997.
The Yule Log is a television show originating in the United States, which is broadcast traditionally on Christmas Eve or Christmas morning. It originally aired from 1966 to 1989 on New York City television station WPIX (channel 11), which revived the broadcast in 2001; the show has since spread to other television properties owned by WPIX parent Tribune Media, including WGN America and (since 2011) Antenna TV. A radio simulcast of the musical portion was broadcast by WPIX(-TV)'s former sister station, WPIX-FM (101.9 FM, now WFAN-FM), until 1988.
The show, which has run between two and four hours in duration, is a film loop of a yule log burning in a fireplace, with a traditional soundtrack of classic Christmas music playing in the background; it is broadcast without commercial interruption.
(Excellent user name / post combo, Annie-Xmas!)
In play:
In 1976, Ted Turner began broadcasting the signal for the independent Atlanta UHF television station which he owned, WTCG, over satellties, enabling cable systems to carry the station. WTCG (which changed its callsign to WTBS a few years later) was thus the U.S.'s first “superstation” – by the late 1970s, several other stations (such as Chicago’s WGN and New York’s WOR) began to do the same.
Originally, the superstation signals and programming were identical to what the stations were carrying over-the-air in their local markets, but, over time, the superstations diverged from what their over-the-air versions offered (in part due to issues over carriage of syndicated programming infringing on local broadcasts of those shows). Today, while TBS and WGN America continue as cable channels, their programming is now completely separate from that of any local over-the-air station.
Ted Turner and WTCG surprisingly acquired the rights to broadcast the games of the Atlanta Braves after the 1972 season. Then, in 1976, Turner also bought the Braves, and those baseball broadcasts became a staple of WTCG (later WTBS) when that channel became a regular on cable networks across the country. As a result, the station referred to the franchise as “America’s team” in a promotional campaign.
Shortly after Ted Turner bought the Atlanta Braves, the team signed free agent pitcher Andy Messersmith. Turner convinced Messersmith to wear uniform number 17, and the word “Channel” in place of his name on the back of his uniform, as a marketing gimmick for Turner’s TV station, WTCG. The move was quickly vetoed by Major League Baseball.
The Confederate ironclad ram CSS *Atlanta *was forced to surrender after the US Navy ironclad USS *Weehawken *fired just five shots at her in battle on June 17, 1863 (two weeks before the Battle of Gettysburg). Repaired and placed into Federal service as USS Atlanta, she was decommissioned, sold to Haiti, and lost at sea with all hands in December 1869.
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The USS Atlanta (SSN-712) was a Los Angeles-class nuclear-powered fast attack submarine, or SSN hull classification for Attack Submarine, Nuclear-powered. She was built in 1978, commissioned in 1982, and served until 1999 when she was decommissioned. Atlanta was the first submarine certified to employ the Mark 48 torpedo and both Harpoon missiles and Tomahawk missiles.
In the Beatles’ animated 1968 film Yellow Submarine, the animated versions of the Fab Four were not voiced by the actual Beatles, but rather, by voice actors.
Partway through production of the film, Peter Batten, who was providing the voice for the animated George Harrison, was discovered to have deserted from the British Army of the Rhine, and was arrested before he had completed his voice work for the film. Paul Angelis, who had been providing Ringo’s voice, wound up recording the remaining portions of George’s lines, as well.
John Paul Jones was born in Scotland as John Paul, but added the last name Jones to avoid arrest after killing a mutinous seaman aboard his merchant ship, the Betsy. He later became an officer in the infant Continental Navy, rising to command of the USS Providence, Ranger and most famously the Bonhomme Richard, aboard the latter of which he defeated the British frigate HMS Serapis.
The USS Bonhomme Richard of 1765 was a French ship launched in 1766 and acquired by the US in 1779. She sank about 8 months later. Later, in the early years of World War II, the aircraft carrier named Bonhomme Richard was renamed Yorktown (CV-10) while still under construction to commemorate the loss of USS Yorktown (CV-5) during the Battle of Midway in June 1942.
The Midway Plaisance was a part of the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair. It was intended to be educational as well as providing entertainment. Groups of people from around the world (including opium smokers from China) were brought to Chicago to be put on display in buildings designed to recreate their “native” villages. At the same time, the Midway became a prototype for the amusement park and included the first Ferris wheel as well as numerous shows and cafes.
In “Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town” by Stephen Leacock, set in a late 19th century small town in Ontario, one of the local businessmen goes off to the big city and comes back determined to open a “caffe” which is his pronunciation of a fancy small cafe which he saw.