SOURCE: Frazier, J. Terry. Introduction to New Brooms! (1776) and The Manager in Distress (1780): Two Preludes by George Colman the Elder, pp. v-xvii. Delmar, N.Y.: Scholars' Facsimiles & Reprints, 1980.

In the following essay, Frazier argues that New Brooms! (written to assure London audiences that the English theater would survive David Garrick's retirement) and The Manager in Distress represent the highest qualities of the prelude.

In 1776 David Garrick, retiring from a legendary career on the English stage, devised management of the Theatre Royal in Drury Lane to Richard Brinsley Sheridan and his co-managers. For the English stage this was perhaps the most significant event since the enactment of the Licensing Act in 1737. The loss of “little Roscius” from the stage was felt even at the time as the end of an era. Garrick had been preeminent as an actor, but was also famous as a manager, the manager, in fact...