Introduction

Abstract

There is no wholly acceptable term to describe the two kinds of theatrical experience with which I am concerned. Between the Licensing Act of 1737 and the Theatre Regulation Act of 1843, which ended the monopoly of the Patent Theatres (Drury Lane, Covent Garden and, to a limited extent, the Haymarket, in London), it was technically correct to speak of the Legitimate and Illegitimate Stage — as Planché characterises them in The Drama’s Levée (1838). The terms would have been understood long after that date and, in the theatre, the expression ‘to go legit.’, as Marie Lloyd did for a very brief period, is still to be heard. What is more, it would still be understood today in American theatre. Apart from the inaccuracy of using these terms before 1737, it was often very difficult in practice to distinguish the kinds of drama so categorised between 1737 and 1843, except at their extremes. Much that was put on at the Surrey would have been at home at Drury Lane, just as, two centuries earlier, The Winter’s Tale (1610) could be performed at the Globe and the Blackfriars — public (i.e. open-to-the-skies) and private (i.e. enclosed) theatres, respectively. However, that the different traditions were clearly understood as such is plain from Planché’s extravaganzas (see pp. 158–64).KeywordsDirect AddressPopular AppealPrivate TheatreDream WorldDisney FilmThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.