John Rich (producer) his work. Garrick even said his pantomime performances were unmatched in his time. 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,
Abanazar (pantomime) Abanazar (pantomime) Abanazar is a magician and the primary antagonist in the Aladdin pantomime. He was also the basis for Jafar in the Disney version of Aladdin. The character first appeared in the harlequinade "Aladin" in 1788 as 'The African Magician', but was given the name Abanazer in 1813 in "Aladdin or The Wonderful Lamp" at Covent Garden Opera House in 1813, described as 'A New Melo-Dramatick Romance', and revived in 1826. Other names which have been used for the character are Mourad, Abel el Nesir, Kiradamac, Abanazac and Hocus Pocus. It was with Henry James Byron's "Aladdin or the