Originally an attorney, on 24 March 1688 Rich purchased from Alexander D'Avenant, co-patentee with Charles Killigrew, a share in the management of the Theatre Royal.
[1] Christopher Rich managed the monopoly United Company from 1693, with such autocratic methods that the senior actors including Thomas Betterton, Elizabeth Barry, and Anne Bracegirdle rebelled.
In October 1706 Vanbrugh leased the Haymarket Theatre to Rich's agent, Owen Swiney; who took with him a small detachment of actors from Drury Lane.
Intrigue by Brett seems to have influenced Henry Grey, 1st Duke of Kent, the Lord Chamberlain, to issue, on 31 December 1707, an edict restricting the Haymarket to opera under Swiney's directorship, and ordering Rich's actors back to Drury Lane.
42, Richard Steele gave a mock catalogue of the contents of "the palace in Drury Lane, of Christopher Rich, Esquire, who is breaking up housekeeping."
There are such things as a rainbow, a little faded; Roxana's nightgown, Othello's handkerchief, the imperial robes of Xerxes, never worn but once, a basket-hilted sword, very convenient to carry milk in, and the like.
[1] Rich had already acquired a lease, with the patent granted by Charles II, of the deserted theatre erected by Sir William D'Avenant in Little Lincoln's Inn Fields.
On the strength of this he erected a new theatre on about the same site in Portugal Row, his architect being James Shepherd, who had also built the playhouse in Goodman's Fields.