Event Comment: A Musical Drama, in Two Parts...with Dances and other Decorations Entirely new. Pit and Boxes to be put together, and no Persons to be admitted without Tickets, which will be delivered this Day, at the Opera Office in the Haymarket, at Half a Guinea each. Gallery 5s. By His Majesty's Command, No Persons whatsoever to be admitted behind the Scenes. The Gallery to be open'd at Four o'Clock. Pit and Boxes at Five. To begin at Six o'clock. A New Opera [composed by Gluck; text by F. Vanneschi]. The Subscribers to the Opera are desired to make the last Payment of their Subscription Money to the Treasurer, at the Opera Office in the Haymarket, where Attendance will be given this and every Day, from Ten till Two, to receive the same, and deliver out the Silver Tickets. [Repeated until 28 Jan.] The new Musical Italian Drama; entitled La Caduta de Giganti, or the Fall of the Giants, writ on Occasion of the expulsion of the Rebels, was perform'd last Night at King's Theatre in the Haymarket. The performance was received and carried on with great Attention, Tranquility, and Applause: and not a little enliven'd by the Presence of his Royal Highness the Duke of Cumberland.--Daily Advertiser, 8 Jan

Event Comment: LLondon Post: We hear that the French Players will (barring Accidents) open at the Little theatre in the Haymarket next Saturday. 'Tis added that the Italian Company of Comic Strolers will exhibit the Week after next; but as they have lost three of their ablest performers, the Connoisseurs are in great Pain about those who are to supply their Places. Possibly some Foreigners may think, that the worst Dramatic Offals are good enough for the vitiated Palates of the E-sh No-y and Gen-ry. 'Tis further expected, that the Company of Gallo-English Players, who made the Town laugh so heartily last Winter, are preparing to entertain them this. Why all these unnatural Fooleries?...and for what Y-ke are we preparing? [Schedule of Nights on which the Turkish Dancer Caratha rented the Haymarket in the fall of 1749: 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, 10, 13, 16, 22, 23, November; 3 December. See Winston MS Calendar of the Haymarket, Harvard Theatre Collection.

Event Comment: [Benefit] for 3 orphan Daughters of a Cit of London (Cross). Tickets to be had at Will's and the Union Coffee House in Cornhill; Grigsby's behind the Royal Exchange; Seagoes in Holborn; the Bedford in Covent Garden; George's in the Haymarket, and at the Stage Door of the Theatre, where places for the Boxes may be taken. Receipts: #264 (Cross)

Event Comment: By Command of Their Majesties. This day publish'd Price 1s. Alexander's Feast; or, The Power of Music; written by Dryden. To which is added the Coronation Anthem as performed this evening at Covent Garden. Set by Mr Handel. This Day publish'd Price 5s. sewed. A Treatise on the Art of Dancing, by Giovanni Andrea Gallini, Director of the Dances at the Royal Theatre in the Haymarket

Event Comment: We hear that some Gentlemen and Ladies who intended to act a private play for their own amusement, at the Little Theatre in the Haymarket; but having been much importuned by their friends and acquaintances for tickets, they found a larger house would be necessary. They applied therefore to the Author of the Masque now performing at Drury Lane, who, without hesitation, agreed that the run of Alfred should be interrupted for one night to oblige them. The tragedy of Othello, we are told is the play the Gentlemen have pitched on. The theatre being engaged to some Gentlemen and ladies for a private play tomorrow, the Masque of Alfred is oblig'd to be deferr'd till Saturday next. Some Persons, it seems, continue still under a Mistake that this Masque [Alfred] is the same with the first draught of one formerly written under the same title: they need only, to be undeceived, look into the advertisement prefixed to that performance just now printed for A. Miller, in the Strand. The Ladies and Gentlemen who distributed Tickets for the Play Othello which was to have been acted in the Haymarket, intend to perform it tomorrow at Drury Lane: No person will be admitted without a ticket, and no tickets will be taken at the stage door (General Advertiser)

Event Comment: [This is the only occasion in the 18th century when a play was acted in London on this date. "The performance at the Haymarket on the 30th of January has been noticed by his Majesty in a manner which is still a topic of conversation in the higher circles...There will be no more theatrical performances on the 30th of January" (London Chronicle, 28 Feb.). On 3 Feb. the Lord Chamberlain wrote to Sheridan as follows: "Sir--Information has been received at this Office that Theatrical Entertainments were exhibited at the Theatre, under your direction, in St. James's Haymarket on the 30th of Last Month, contrary to all precedent, and repugnant to Decency, being the Anniversary of the Martyrdom of King Charles the First. I do not know by what Authority such a Step was taken but, as Chamberlain of His Majesty's Household, think it my Duty to desire that you will be pleased to Cause the Practice to be discontinued in future. I am, Sir, Your Obedient, Humble Servant, Salisbury" (MS Letters to Sheridan from Various Correspondents,II, 64, in Harvard Theatre Collection). The Morning Chronicle on 31 Jan. offered another opinion: "It gave us infinite pleasure that last night we happily broke through one of the most absurd fasts in the calendar. The Managers of Drury Lane, with proper regard to the public, rescued them from the common dullness of a 30th of January." But the absurd fast remained in force until 1843.] Receipts: #339 18s. (291.4; 40.0; 8.11; ticket not come in: 0.3)

Event Comment: To be seen a Person who performs the most surprizing Things...he presents you with a common Wine bottle, which any of the Spectators may first examine; this Bottle is plac'd on a Table in the Middle of the Stage, and he (without any Equivocation) goes into it in Sight of all the Spectators, and sings in it; during his Stay in the Bottle, any Person may handle it, and see plainly that it does not exceed a common Tavern Bottle. The Performance continues about Two Hours and a Half. These Performances have been seen by most of the Crowned Heads of Asia, Africa, and Europe, and never appear'd anywhere Public but once. Stage 7s. 6d. where Masks may be worn. Boxes 5s. Pit 3s. Gallery 2s. [The famous Bottle Conjurer hoax.] Theatre was crowded...by five o'clock; at seven the house was lighted up [but not music]...a Person came before the Curtain, and, bowing, promis'd if Mr Conjurer did not arrive in half an Hour, their Money should be return'd...after near an Hour...a Gentleman in the Box snatch'd a Candle lighted, and in Violence threw it on the Stage; this was the Signal for the Onset of Battle...the Boxes, Seats, Glasses, Scenes, Chairs, Machinery, and all the Furniture of the Play House, were in less than ten Minutes carried into the Street...an excellent Bonfire was made of Mr Foote's Auction Room...it may put a [pe]riod to the Auction, till the Theatre can be refitted.--Charles Adams to John Gilbert-Cooper, Theatre Notebook, XI (1957) p. 139. [Potter was still owner of this theatre.] Those opposed to a recent late book would have been gratified had the Conjurer jumped into the bottle and proved that miracles had not yet ceased."--Daily Advertiser, 17 Jan. Last Night a numerous Audience, among whom were several Persons of Quality, was at the New Theatre in the Haymarket, in wonderful Expectation of seeing the Miraculous Man creep into a Bottle, and do several other Miracles; but the only one he perform'd was, that he render'd himself invisible (without any Equivocation) to the no small Disappointment of the gaping Multitude; who, being told from behind the Curtain that the Performer had not yet appear'd, but that if they would stay until the next Night, instead of a Quart Bottle he should creep into a Pint, immediately grew outrageous, and in a Quarter of an Hour's Time broke to Pieces all the Boxes, Benches, Scenes, and everything that was in their power to destroy, leaving only the Shell of the House remaining. Surely this will deter anyone from venturing to impose on the public in the like manner for the future.--General Advertiser, 17 Jan. [See also dl Comment 18, 19, 20, 27 Jan.

Event Comment: Ever studious for Public Amusement, I...strayed last Week, to a place near the Haymarket in Westminster, and Temple Bar in Middlesex, call'd James's St., where at the New Theatre, a Play called the Miser, with an Entertainment called the Old Man Bit, or Harlequin Skeleton, I saw rehears'd. J. W. Gray's Inn 12 Oct.-Theatrical Clippings, Folger Library. Benefit Julian Late of Goodman's Fields Theatre. At the New Theatre in James St., near Haymarket...a Concert. Boxes 2s. 6d. Pit 1s. 6d. Gallery 1s. 6 p.m. Note, Mr Julian taken this Opportunity to acquaint his Friends, that these Performances will be done with the utmost Regularity and Decoration, most of the Performers having belong'd to the Theatres. [This customary notice about the concert, time and prices will not be included unless changed.

Event Comment: Conductor-Dr Arne. The Theatre thoroughly aired a week before the performance. Music of the Interlude composed by Arne. [Advertized as "Mr Foote's Theatre in the Haymarket."] At the Instance of several persons of Quality, by permission of the Noblemen and Gentlemen of the Catch Society at the Thatched House, St James's St. Pit and Boxes 5s. First gallery 2s. Upper Gallery 1s. To begin at 7 p.m. Books of all Catches and Glees and Capochio and Dorinna to be had at the Theatre for 1s