Event Comment: Doors open at 5 o'clock. Play to begin at 6 o'clock. Prices: Boxes 5s. Pit 3s. Gallery 2s. Upper Gallery 1s. Places to be had of
Mr Johnston at
the Stage door. [Customary note, repeated.] Rec'd
Mrs Groath's one year's rent to
Xmas last #3; Paid Renters #8 (Treasurer's Book). This regular expenditure was made nightly for
the 189 acting nights of
the season, as well as for
the 11 nights on which Oratorio's were given in
the Spring.
The total amount came to #1600. No fur
ther note will be made of this item this season.
The Westminster Magazine this month, reiterated its doleful cry "that
the stage is on its decline." In a long article on "Stage Effect, or Dramatic Cookery," it concluded that our "
Theatrical managers and even our
Theatrical Critics seem to have resolved all
the merit of dramatic composition into stage trick, and rest
their criterion of Dramatic Genius on
the knowledge of what
they are pleased to call Stage effect."
The "
Theatre" article for
the month remarked upon
the boldness of Garrick's opening with
the Beggar's Opera, "notwithstanding he was requested by
the Bench of Justices at
Bow-Street, to suppress it, as
they were of opinion it had done a great deal of mischief among
the low class of people."
Lloyd's Evening Post, 17 Sept., included extracts from letters against playing
the Beggar's Opera, "because every performance makes from one two twenty thieves."
Sir John Fielding and his associates had addressed a letter to Garrick requesting him not to perform
the opera for
the same reason.
The Morning Chronicle, 23 Sept., praised Garrick for not complying with
the Justices' request.
Wm Augustus Miles published a
Letter to Sir John Fielding occasioned by his extraordinary Request to
Mr Garrick for
the suppression of
the Beggar's
Opera (44 pp.). In this he vindicated
the moral effect of
the opera.] Receipts: #158 (Treasurer's Book). [Note: For perform ance at hay 18 and 20 September, see Season of 1772-1773, p. 1740