Event Comment: Benefit for Lewes

Event Comment: Boxes 5s. Pit 3s. Gallery 2s. Upper Gallery 1s. [Note repeated in subsequent bills. Larpent MS 337 casts the Prelude as follows: Manager-Dyer; Prompter-$Younger; Author-$Kniveton; Carpenter-$Davis; Mr Reinhold-$Mr Lewes; Chairmen-$Saunders, $Fox; Young Lady, her first appearance; servant.] Receipts: #199 5s

Event Comment: Afterpiece: A New Piece in 2 Acts [by William O'Brien] never perform'd. [Genest, V, 363, assigns parts as follows: Grub-$Shuter; Consol-$Quick; Chapeau-$Lewes; George Bevil-$Wroughton; Robin-$Dyer; Mrs Grub-$Mrs Green; Emily-$Mrs Bulkley; Jenny-$Mrs Kniveton. See playbill 8 Oct. 1773. Plot given in detail in Town and Country Magazine for this month.

Event Comment: Cash advanc'd Lee Lewes as per note #24. Receipts: #160 8s. 6d. (Account Book)

Event Comment: The Two Misers is unavoidably oblig'd to be deferr'd. Books of the Entertainment [The Two Misers?] to be had at the theatre. Boxes 5s. Pit 3s. First Gallery 2s. Upper Gallery 1s. No persons admitted behind the scenes, nor any money returned after the curtain is up. Places for the Boxes to be taken, of Mr Sarjant (only) at the Stage Door. The Doors to be opened at Half after Five o'clock. To Begin exactly at Half after Six. Vivant Rex and Regina. (Customary footnote for succeeding Playbills. It will not be repeated here. The Westminster Magazine, September, p. 459, indicates a Prelude was also given this opening night, consisting of several of the actors comparing notes on their various successes, casts of parts, droll accidents, which they had experienced during their different summer excursions. Mattocks, Dunstall, Lee Lewes, Miss Barsanti, and Hull participated. The reviewer reported the content of their reminiscences, but disliked the jumbled nature of the Prelude. Another account in the Morning Post, 21 September.] Note: For performance at hay 20 September, see Season of 1774-1775, p. 1905

Event Comment: [In mainpiece the playbill assigns Lord Lumbcrcourt to Wilson, but "Lee Lewes was the substitute for Wilson, and far indeed better than the man he appeared for" (Public Advertiser, 31 Jan.).] Afterpiece [1st time; P 2, by John O'KeerFe]: The Music composed by Shield. The Scenery designed by Richards and Carver, and executed by them, Hodgins, and others. The 1st Part of this Pantomime is an Alteration of the Last New One [Friar Bacon (see 23 Dec. 1783)], and the 2nd Part entirely new and never before exhibited. Nothing under Full Price will be taken. "If Macklin once loses the Catch Word he is gone irretrievably." At the end of the 3rd act, at half price, some apprentices coming into the pit talked so loudly that "Macklin stopped; he lost himself. ... He came to the Side of the Stage, and stooping down to the Talkers, said, 'Gentlemen, I must beg you to be silent; my Hearing and Recollection are not so perfect as they were; I cannot proceed for your Talking'" (Public Advertiser, 5 Feb.). Receipts: #286 14s. (282/15; 3/19)

Event Comment: Account-Book, 21 Oct.: Paid Lee Lewes on cancelling his engagement #21. [Lee Lewes acted on the night of his benefit, 9 May 1785, but not again this season.] Receipts: #104 0s. 6d. (78/7/0; 25/12/0; 0/1/6)

Event Comment: Benefit for [Lee] Lewes. Receipts: #144 6s. (25/9/0; 14/15/6; 0/7/6; tickets: 103/14/0)(charge: #105 19s. 4d.)

Event Comment: "Whitfield played the Author the first night, but so indifferently that the part was given to Lee Lewes on the 2d" [MS annotation on BM playbill (CG, Vol. III)]. Receipts: #231 8s. (227/5; 4/3)

Event Comment: Places for the Boxes to be taken of Fosbrook at the stage-door. The Doors will be opened at 5:30. To begin at 6:30 [see 13 Oct.]. [No playbill this season lists the various prices of admission; they were probably, as usual: Boxes 5s. Pit 3s. 1st Gallery 2s. Upper Gallery 1s. Lee Lewes was from CG.] Receipts: #190 (153/7/0; 36/1/6; 0/11/6)