John Rich

John Rich 1692-1761, English actor-manager. Rich introduced pantomime to England, himself playing (1717-60) the role of Harlequin in annual performances. His successful production of John Gay's Beggar's Opera (1728) enabled him to build Covent Garden Theatre, which he opened in 1732.

Rich, John (?1692–1761), theatrical producer, opened the New Theatre in Lincoln's Inn Fields in 1714. In 1728 he produced Gay's Beggar's Opera which was popularly said to have ‘made Rich gay and Gay rich’. He became manager of Covent Garden in 1732, and in 1735 founded the Sublime Society of Beef Steaks, a club which met there.

Rich, John (c.1692–1761), English actor and theatre manager, son of Christopher Rich (?–1714), manager first of Drury Lane and then of the old Lincoln's Inn Fields Theatre, which John inherited from him, and where he was responsible in 1728 for the production of Gay's The Beggar's Opera. With the profits from this highly successful venture he built the first Covent Garden theatre, transferring to it the patent granted by Charles II to William Davenant, and opening it in 1732 with a company headed by James Quin. Though almost illiterate John Rich was an excellent actor in dumb-show and, developing the ideas of Weaver, he popularized pantomime in England, playing Harlequin himself under the name of Lun. He produced a pantomime annually from 1717 to 1760, his own masterpiece in acting being ‘Harlequin Hatched from an Egg by the Sun’, which he performed in Harlequin Sorcerer at Tottenham Court Fair in 1741.