The original production premiered in London at Covent Garden Theatre on 15 March 1773 with Mary Bulkley as Constantia Hardcastle,[3] and was immediately successful.[4] In the nineteenth century, actor and comedian Lionel Brough debuted as Tony Lumpkin in 1869 and continued to play the character in 1777 performances,[5] whilst an 1881 production of the play was socialite and actress Lillie Langtry's first big success.[6]
In 1964, the play was staged by the Edinburgh Gateway Company, directed by Victor Carin.[7] It was chosen by the Angles Theatre company to relaunch the Georgian Angles Theatre in 1978, about 130 years after it closed. An incident in a nearby house in Leverington may have been the basis of the play.[8] Goldsmith is supposed to have visited his friends the Lumpkins at their home Parkfield, Leverington. Lumpkin moved to Wisbech later and this play was very popular in the local theatre.[9][10]
Perhaps one of the most famous modern incarnations of She Stoops to Conquer was Peter Hall's version, staged in 1993 and starring Miriam Margolyes as Mrs. Hardcastle. The most famous TV production is the 1971 version featuring Ralph Richardson, Tom Courtenay, Juliet Mills, and Brian Cox, with Trevor Peacock as Tony Lumpkin. Courtenay, Mills, and Peacock also performed in this play at The Garrick Theatre, London, in 1969. The 1971 version was shot on location near Ross-on-Wye, Herefordshire, and is part of the BBC archive. This play was one of 13 BBC productions that formed the series of thirteen British and European plays called Classic Theatre, the Humanities in Drama.[11] The series was funded in the U.S. by the National Endowment for the Humanities and used as a study aid on video tape by thousands of U.S. students.
In 2008 the play was again produced in Wisbech. The story goes that Oliver Goldsmith wrote the play while staying with the Lumpkin family at Park House in Leverington, near Wisbech and that he lampooned his friend, Nicholas Lumpkin, by turning him into his famous creation, Tony Lumpkin. The real Lumpkin moved to Wisbech after his money ran out.[12]
