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unusual facts about Theater Royal, Drury Lane



A Jovial Crew

The title page of the first edition states that the play debuted at the Cockpit Theatre in Drury Lane in 1641.

Arthur Foxton Ferguson

In 1904 he provided pre-opera lectures for Charles Manners' (1857–1938) Moody-Manners touring company (the larger) for its performances at Theater Royal, Drury Lane lecturing on Charles Gounod's Faust and Fromental Halévy's La Juive, and Richard Wagner's Tristan und Isolde and Lohengrin.

Baron Sainsbury

He was the first member of the Sainsbury family to be raised to the peerage, and chose the territorial designation of Drury Lane in his title, as Sainsbury's first shop was opened there in 1869.

Caravan and the New Symphonia

Caravan and the New Symphonia is a record by Caravan recorded at the Theatre Royal in Drury Lane and originally released in 1974 on UK Decca's subsidiary Deram.

Charles Dieupart

He is next heard of on 11 February 1703 in London, when he performed Corelli's music at Drury Lane with Gasparo Visconti.

Charles Kean

He made his first appearance at Drury Lane on 1 October 1827 as Norval in Home's Douglas, but his continued failure to achieve popularity led him to leave London in the spring of 1828 for the provinces.

Diamond Donner

Earlier the play was presented at Drury Lane and at the New Amsterdam Theatre the previous summer.

Drury Lane

The street Drury Lane is also where The Muffin Man lives as mentioned in the popular nursery rhyme.

George Anne Bellamy

She participated in the rivalry for popular favor in Romeo and Juliet in 1750, playing with Garrick at Drury Lane, while Barry and Mrs. Cibber played at Covent Garden.

Isaac A. Van Amburgh

In 1839, Queen Victoria traveled six times in as many months solely to watch Van Amburgh perform at Drury Lane.

James Moore Smythe

In 1727, he wrote his only play, The Rival Modes, and the Drury Lane company under the direction of Colley Cibber and Robert Wilks acted it.

John Baptist Medina

Medina was the son of a Spanish army captain posted to Brussels, where he was born and later trained by François Duchatel, before coming to London in 1686 and setting up his studio in Drury Lane.

John Home

He took it to London, England, and submitted it to David Garrick for representation at Drury Lane, but it was rejected as unsuitable for the stage.

Louisa Cranstoun Nisbett

As Miss Mordaunt she had considerable experience, especially in Shakespearean leading parts, before her first London appearance in 1829 at Drury Lane as Widow Cheerly in Andrew Cherry's The Soldier's Daughter.

Madame Céleste

She now gave up dancing, and appeared as an actress, first at Drury Lane and then at the Haymarket.

Maria Linley

She was trained as a singer by her father Thomas Linley the elder (one of 7 musical siblings born to him and his wife Mary Johnson) and performed in the Drury Lane oratorios and in concerts until her early death.

Mary Anne Talbot

Talbot continued to use sailor's clothes, worked in menial jobs and even tried her luck on stage at Drury Lane but eventually was arrested and taken to debtor's prison at Newgate.

Robert Dodsley

In 1737 his King and the Miller of Mansfield, a "dramatic tale" of King Henry II, was produced at Drury Lane, and received with much applause; the sequel, Sir John Cockle at Court, a farce, appeared in 1738.

Rutland House

Davenant established at least two other "private performance houses" in Lincoln's Inn Fields and Drury Lane.

Sleepwalking scene

John Philip Kemble's 1794 Drury Lane production starred his leading lady and sister Sarah Siddons who offered a fiercely psychological portrait of Lady Macbeth.

The Lady of Pleasure

It was performed by Queen Henrietta's Men at the Cockpit Theatre in Drury Lane, in the final winter before the theatres suffered a long closure due to bubonic plague (May 1636 to October 1637) and Shirley himself left London for Dublin (1637).

The Maid of Honour

John Philip Kemble, an admirer of Massinger's dramas, staged an adaptation of the play called Camiola, or The Maid of Honour, at Drury Lane in 1785.

The Rose of Castille

The Rose of Castille was the first and most successful of these operas, and the only one to premiere at the Lyceum before the company moved (via Drury Lane) to the rebuilt Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, where the remaining five premiered between 1858 and 1863.

The Supremes' farewell concert

As the group's touring schedule was booked months in advance, it fell that the group would be performing at one of London's top theaters in Drury Lane, on Mary's last night as a member.

Thomas Doggett

He was associated with Colley Cibber and others in the management of the Theatre Royal, Haymarket, and Drury Lane, and he continued to play comedy parts at the former until his retirement in 1713.

Thomas Southerne

It was frequently revived, and in 1757 was altered by David Garrick and produced at Drury Lane.

Willis Hall

Under Waterhall's coaxing, the piece also became the long-running Drury Lane musical, Billy (1974), starring Michael Crawford, and a television sit-com both in Britain (1973–4) and in the United States (1979).

Women Pleased

David Garrick would borrow from Fletcher's play for his pantomime A Christmas Tale, staged at Drury Lane in 1773.


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