John Rich (producer)

John Rich (1692–1761) was an important director and theatre manager in 18th-century London. He opened the New Theatre at Lincoln's Inn Fields (1714), which he managed until he opened the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden (1732). He managed Covent Garden until 1761, putting on ever more lavish productions. He introduced pantomime to the English stage and played a dancing and mute Harlequin himself from 1717 to 1760 under the stage name of "Lun." Rich's version of the servant character, Arlecchino, moved away from the poor, disheveled, loud, and crude character, to a colorfully-dressed, silent Harlequin, performing fanciful tricks, dances and magic. The British idea of the Harlequin character was heavily inspired by Rich’s idea of a silent character. Rich’s choice of being a silent character was influenced by his unappealing voice, which he was well aware of.

Rich's theatre specialized in what contemporaries called "spectacle." Today we might call them "special effects." His stagings would endeavour to present actual cannon shots, animals, and multiple illusions of battle. Rich began his work as “Lun” the Harlequin character in 1717, wearing a leotard with diamond shaped patches, and encouraging the silence that became normal for the pantomime character. By 1728, Rich was synonymous with lavish (and successful) productions. Rich performed multiple roles as the “Harlequin” character type while the Company Manager at Lincoln’s Inn Fields, including Harlequin Doctor Faustus. Rich was praised for his movement style, allowing each limb to tell a story in shows, such as in Harlequin Sorcerer where he portrayed the harlequin being hatched from an egg.

Lewis Theobald was working for Rich on writing pantomimes. When Alexander Pope wrote the first version of The Dunciad, and even more in the second and third editions, Rich appears as a prime symptom of the disease of the age and debasement of taste. In his Dunciad Variorum of 1732, he makes John Rich the angel of the goddess Dulness:

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