"East Lynne" has been adapted for the stage many times; the play was so popular that stock companies put on a performance whenever they needed guaranteed revenue. It became so common that theaters stuck with a badly received play famously would assuage audiences with the hopeful promise, "Next week, "East Lynne"!" , "Next week, East Lynne!" Actor and theater manager Norman Carter "Tod" Slaughter wrote: "No other play in its time has ever been more maligned, more burlesqued, more ridiculed, or consistently made more money".The play was staged so often that critic Sally Mitchell estimates some version was seen by audiences in either England or North America every week for over forty years.