Drury Lane Theatre

The Licencing Act of 1737 ensured that only Drury Lane and Covent Garden, the two “Theatres Royal,” could regularly produce plays. The caricature seen here refers to a pivotal moment in the ongoing rivalry between Drury Lane and Covent Garden. During his first few years managing Drury Lane, Garrick was content to let John Rich continue Covent Garden’s virtual monopoly on expensive, elaborate, crowd-pleasing pantomimes. Then on Boxing Day, 1750, Garrick risked a direct challenge with Queen Mab, a new pantomime by Henry Woodward. As the caricature shows, the risk paid off, with Garrick easily outweighing the talents of Rich’s Covent Garden (Peg Woffington, Spranger Barry, James Quin and Susannah Cibber). Henry Woodward, in his harlequin costume, holds up “Queen Mab.”

No pictures of Drury Lane in Garrick’s early years of managment are known to exist. That theater was built in 1674, with a capacity of about 2,000. These images show Drury Lane after Robert Adam modernized the building for Garrick in 1775. The renovation brought capacity to about 2,300, and added a fashionable neo-classical facade.

Garrick’s theater was the second of that name, the first having burned down in 1672. The renovated theater was completely replaced in 1794. The current Drury Lane is an 1812 replacement of the 1794 building.