Premiere of The School for Scandal (1777)

Richard Brinsley Sheridan's comedy of manners The School for Scandal received its first performance at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane in London on 8 May 1777. The premiere is attested by both supplied sources, which agree on the date, the venue, and the playwright, and it stands as the opening of the play's stage history rather than an account of its later editions or adaptations.

Episodes

Background and detail

Background. The School for Scandal is a comedy of manners written by Richard Brinsley Sheridan, an Anglo-Irish playwright who had already scored successes with The Rivals and The Duenna in 1775. By 1776 Sheridan had bought David Garrick's share in the Drury Lane patent, making him owner of the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, where his prominent plays were staged.

The Premiere. The play was first performed in London at Drury Lane Theatre on 8 May 1777. The cast list of this first production survives and shows no character named Miss Verjuice, indicating that Sheridan's change combining her part with Snake's already predated the premiere. Sheridan later dedicated the published play to Frances Crewe, Lady Crewe.

Significance. Contemporary and later commentary identifies the play's unvarying wit of character as its great defect, distinguishing Sheridan as a comic writer from a great dramatist like Shakespeare. The play is regarded as Sheridan's most famous, and its text remains difficult for editors, with editions varying considerably because it is the most intractable problem Sheridan set his editors.

People involved

Sources

Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.