Event Comment: [These performances were held in a temporary booth erected following the destruction of the theatre by fire (see 26 June). In August King Lear, with Everard as Lear and Cooke as Edgar, was acted here three times [Edward Cape Everard, Memoirs of an Unfortunate Son of Thespis [Edinburgh, 1018], p.78). Everard states that the booth was kept open for about six weeks, but no further records of what was acted have survived.

Event Comment: [Mainpiece in place of King Richard the Third, announced on playbill of 2 Jan.] Receipts: #148 13s. (119.12.0; 28.18.6; 0.2.6)

Event Comment: The Discovery [announced on playbill of 23 Jan.] is obliged to be deferred on account of King's Indisposition. Receipts: #174 17s. (171.11; 3.6)

Event Comment: Benefit for Miss Younge. Mainpiece: Not acted these 7 years [acted 23 Apr. 1773]. Public Advertiser, 13 Mar.: Tickets to be had of Miss Younge at Thelwall's, King-street, Covent Garden. Receipts: #217 16s. 6d. (83.16.0; 17.14.6; 9.1.0; tickets: 107.5.0) (charge: #64 15s.)

Event Comment: On account of King's sudden Illness The Critic is obliged to be deferred. Receipts: #96 [73.16.0; 20.10.6; 1.13.6)

Event Comment: The School For Scandal [announced on playbill of 17 Nov.] is obliged to be deferred on account of King's still continuing ill.Receipts: #111 17s. 6d. (82.5.0; 26.15.6; 2.17.0)

Event Comment: [As afterpiece the playbill announces the 23rd night of The Critic, but on the Kemble playbill it is deleted. Its substitute is listed in the Account-Book.] "The earliest notice will be given of the 23rd performance of The Critic, which is obliged to be deferred on account of King's illness" [see 23 Dec.] (Public Advertiser, 13 Dec.). Receipts: #126 14s. 6d. (89.5.0; 34.6.0; 3.3.6)

Event Comment: The Old Batchelor [announced on playbill of 17 Feb.] is obliged to be deferr'd on account of King's illness. Receipts: #161 7s. (107.3; 53.9; 0.15)

Event Comment: Benefit for Mrs Palmer (the Lady who perform'd Calista). [Mainpiece: Prologue by Thomas Baker.] No Person to be admitted without a ticket, which may be had of Mrs Palmer, No. 13 Pierpont-Row; at the King's Head Tavern in the upper-Street; and at the place of Performance. [The date of the performance of The Fair Penitent, of which play Calista is the heroine, has not as yet come to light.

Event Comment: Benefit for Mrs Green. Tickets delivered for the 31st of March will be taken. Public Advertiser, 15 Mar.: Tickets to be had of Mrs Green at her house in King-street, Covent Garden. Receipts: #262 9s. (199.4; tickets: 63.5) (charge: #105)

Event Comment: [Mainpiece in place of The First Part of King Henry the Fourth, announced on playbill of 22 Sept.] Afterpiece: The Overture and the rest of the music composed by Dr Fisher. Paid Music 22nd Inst. #7 15s. 4d.; Properties 22nd Inst. 9s. 8d.; Wardrobe #6 11s. 6d.; Supernumeraries #1 19s.; Chorus Singers #1 5s.; Guard [master carpenter] for Scene Men #10 19s. 5d. Receipts: #194 13s. 6d. (193.18.0; 0.15.6)

Event Comment: [On this night Sg and Sga Zuchelli, Henry and Sga Crespi also danced in 3 ballets at king's. A probable explanation is that the play at dl began three-quarters of an hour earlier than did the opera.] Receipts: #103 4s. (69.16; 31.18; 1.10)

Event Comment: [The dancers were not the Zuchellis, &c. (as on 31 Jan.); on Tuesdays and Saturdays they were engaged at king's.] Receipts: #216 15s. (212.15; 4.0)

Event Comment: Benefit for the Subscription for the Relief of the Sufferers in the West India Islands [see king's, 8 Feb.]

Event Comment: A revived Serious Opera, in 2 acts; the Music composed, with Improvements, by Sacchini. Public Advertiser, 25 June: On Saturday last was revived at the King's Theatre the Serious Opera of Creso [see 8 Nov. 1777], under the new title of Euriso

Event Comment: 1st piece [1st time; PREL I, by George Colman elder; also ascribed to George Keate. Larpent MS 565; not published]: In Three Scenes of Dialogue. 2nd piece: The Music compiled by Dr Pepusch. 3rd piece [1st time; B. BALL I (see king's, 29 Mar.)]: Ballet Tragi-Comique by Signior Novestris [i.e. George Colman, the elder]. The Music by Signior Gluck. With New Scenes, Dresses and Decorations. Machinist and Painter-Signior Rookereschi. Tailor-Signior Walkerino. Morning Chronicle, 9 Aug.: Bannister with great good sense played chastely, and suffered the burlesque to arise out of his serious performance of Polly, not attempting to render the character ridiculous by making it more outre than it was rendered by his voice and figure

Event Comment: [Mainpiece in place of King Lear, announced on playbill of 10 Nov.] Receipts: #112 5s. 6d. (110/15/0; 1/10/6)

Event Comment: The Critic [announced on playbill of 6 Feb.] is unavoidably deferred on account of the Indisposition of King. Receipts: #159 14s. 6d. (112/16/0; 46/12/0; 0/6/6)

Event Comment: Variety is unavoidably deferred [Public Advertiser, 26 Feb.: on account of King's illness] till Monday next, when it will certainly be performed for the First Time. Receipts: #118 1s. 6d. (85/3/0; 32/16/0; 0/8/6)

Event Comment: Benefit for Brandon, box-book and house-keeper. [The playbill announces as mainpiece King Henry the Eighth, and as afterpiece Barnaby Brittle, but the Account-Book has, "Alter'd to the Count of Narbonne" and "Alter'd to Comus."] Receipts: #300 8s. (66/2; tickets: 234/6) (charge: #105)

Event Comment: Mainpiece [1st time; CO 3, by John O'Keeffe, altered from his The Banditti (see 28 Nov. 1781). Text in his Dramatic Works, Vol. 1 (T. Woodfall, 1798)]: With new Scenes [by Carver (O'Keeffe, u, 38)], Dresses, and a new Overture. The Selected Airs by Handel, Vento, Giordani, Giardini, Bertoni, Dr Arne, and Carolan, the Irish Bard. The Overture and New Airs composed by Dr Arnold. Books of the Songs to be had at the Theatre. [This was Sga Sestini's 1st appearance on the English-speaking stage. For several preceding seasons she had been a member of the Italian opera company performing at the King's.] "Sestini . . . was handsome, sprightly, and a good actress, if great exuberance of gesticulation, activity of motion, and affected Italian smorfie could make her one; but her voice was gritty and sharp (something like singing through a comb), and she was nothing of a singer, except for lively comic airs. Yet she was . . . long a favourite with the mass of the public, though not with the connoisseurs" (Mount-Edgcumbe, p. 33). Account-Book, 30 June 1783: Paid O'Keeffe in full for The Castle of Andalusia #368 18s. 6d. Receipts: #166 2s. 6d. (165/9/0; 0/13/6)