51°30′53″N0°04′19″W / 51.514812°N 0.071851°W /51.514812; -0.071851Two 18th century theatres bearing the nameGoodman's Fields Theatre were located onAlie Street,Whitechapel,London. The first opened on 31 October 1727 in a small shop byThomas Odell, deputy Licenser of Plays. The first play performed wasGeorge Farquhar'sThe Recruiting Officer.Henry Fielding's second playThe Temple Beau premièred here on 26 January 1730. Upon retirement, Odell passed the management on toHenry Giffard, after a sermon was preached against the theatre at St Botolph's,Aldgate.[1] Giffard operated the theatre until 1732. After he left, the theatre was used for a variety of acrobatic performances.
Giffard constructed a new theatre down the street designed byEdward Shepherd who also designed theRoyal Opera House,Covent Garden. The theatre opened withHenry IV, Part I, 2 October 1732 that included actorsThomas Walker,Richard Yates andHenry Woodward. A dispute at the Drury Lane Theatre bought the actressSarah Thurmond and her husband to the theatre.[2] With the passing of theLicensing Act 1737, the theatre was forced to close. Giffard rentedLincoln's Inn Fields Theatre briefly and then, with various political machinations, was able to reopen Goodman's Fields in 1740.The Winter's Tale was produced there in 1741 for the first time in over a century. The same yearDavid Garrick made his successful début asRichard III. He also staged plays of his own including the 1741farceThe Lying Valet. The theatre closed 27 May 1742 and did not re-open. It was pulled down in 1746, and a further theatre built on the site,[1] this briefly showed drama before it was converted to a warehouse and burned down in 1809.
During its heyday, the poetGray noted in a letter to a friend, that "there are a dozen dukes of a night at Goodman's Fields sometimes".[3]
TheOxford Companion to the Theatre notes that there may have been an earlier theatre namedGoodman's Fields Theatre in the area around 1703.
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