Event Comment: Benefit for Mrs Wells. Afterpiece [1st time; F 2, by Edward Topham, with incidental music by Shield. MS not in Larpent; not published. Prologue by George Colman, the younger (European Magazine, May 1786, p. 370)]. "An old and established rule among the youth of Westminster [School will] not permit any exhibition on the stage reflecting upon their body ... In the second act Mrs Wells made her appearance in the dress of a Westminster scholar, when a general uproar [instigated by the scholars] took place, and the [rest of the] piece was prevented from being heard" (Town and Country Magazine, May 1786, p. 235). Public Advertiser, 8 May: Tickets to be had of Mrs Wells, No. 188, Oxford-street. Receipts: #282 17s. (166/0/6; 21/19/6; tickets: 94/17/0) (charge: #105)
Performances
Mainpiece Title: The Bird In A Cage
Afterpiece Title: Small Talk; or, The Westminster Boy
Performance Comment: Principal Parts by Quick, Booth, Palmer, Brown, Wewitzer, Fearon, Davies, Edwin; Mrs Webb, Miss Brangin, Mrs Wells. Cast not known. Prologue spoken by Holman .Dance: In Act III of mainpiece a Grand Dance, as17860424; End of Act I of afterpiece Leap Year, as17860227