Event Comment: 1
st piece [1
st time; PREL I, by
George Colman, the elder]. "The ground-work was the apologies received from the great actors, who all preferred their suburban shades to the temperature of the
Haymarket...The prompter enters to apologize to the audience and return the money, but his plea is rendered nugatory by certain oratorical and mimetic personages
stationed in the pit and boxes, who not at fir
st being recognized by the house as professional people, a great confusion was produced. When
Mrs Webb arose to address the audience, the joke became apparent, and a prodigious intere
st was excited' (
Boaden, Siddons, 1,208). [In 2nd piece the playbill li
sts Baddeley, but "Previous to the beginning of the Play,
Palmer came forward...and acquainted [the audience] that Baddeley then lay speechless [as the result of a
stroke], and
Hitchcock, the prompter, would, with their permission, read Baddeley's Part" (
London Chronicle, 31 May). The Doors to be opened at 6:00. To begin at 7:00 [same throughout season]. Places for the Boxes to be taken of Rice at the
Theatre. Boxes 5s. Pit 3s. 1
st Gallery 2s. Upper Gallery 1s.
Public Advertiser, 6 July 1780: This Day is published The Manager in Di
stress (1s.)