Finances

These pages give financial details for January 3 and January 4, 1750. On Wednesday, with Hamlet as the mainpiece and Savoyard Travellers as the afterpiece, Drury Lane took in £102 6s. 6d. On Thursday, with The Rehearsal and The Chaplet, revenue came to £165 8s. 6d. Expenses those days included extra musicians, contributions to Christmas boxes for the servants of important theater-goers, printers’ bills, and “a coffin for Ophelia.”

Overhead was high, and Garrick’s financial sucess at Drury Lane was no easy feat.  Account books reveal regular expenditures for such staples as pens and candles, not to mention salaries.  While the exact number of employees varied from season to season, Garrick’s company ranged between seventy-five and one hundred performers (not only actors, but also dancers and musicians) and between forty and seventy-five “house servants” (everyone behind the scenes, from carpenters to the head prompter).

The Drury Lane prompter kept a notebook of "Plays etc." performed at the theater. In it, he noted whether particular performances went over well or not in order to help Garrick plan a profitable season.