He was "an experienced, courageous, and obstinate actor-manager"[1] who proved a persistent rival for the main theatrical figures of Restoration theatre, Sir William Davenant and Thomas Killigrew.
Jolly also brought woman actors onto the stage in Germany in 1654, anticipating the greatest innovation of the Restoration theatre in England by several years.
Their repertory probably included Marlowe's Doctor Faustus; Pepys and his wife saw a performance of that play at the Red Bull on 26 May 1662, though he found it "so wretchedly done that we were sick of it."
)[6] Jolly maintained a toehold in London for two years, though the erstwhile rivals Davenant and Killigrew united in opposing his presence in the capital as strenuously as they could.
[10] Jolly still maintained his touring troupe; they remained successful at playing cities outside London – provided they didn't stay too long.
The London patent companies built larger and more elaborate theatres for themselves, equipped with ever more advanced resources for the scenes and properties needed for the spectaculars of the era.
The available evidence indicates that theatre managers of this age, from Philip Henslowe and Francis Langley to Christopher Beeston, were sometimes (often, regularly) ruthless and unscrupulous.