Several of W. S. Gilbert's early plays were staged here, including "Randall's Thumb", "Creatures of Impulse" (with music by Alberto Randegger), "Great Expectations" (adapted from the Dickens novel), and "On Guard" (all in 1871); "The Happy Land" (1873, with Gilbert Abbott à Beckett; Gilbert's most controversial play); "The Wedding March", translated from "Un Chapeau de Paille d'Italie" by Eugène Marin Labiche (1873); "The Blue-Legged Lady", translated from "La Dame aux Jambes d'Azur" by Labiche and Marc-Michel (1874); and "Broken Hearts" (1875). By 1878, management of the theatre was shared by John Hare and W. H. Kendal.