[2] King Street was a much more ambitious undertaking, being based on the examples of the established London patent theatres.
[3] The theatre opened on 25 September 1751 with its first performance being a "Shakespeare Night and Concert of Vocal and Instrumental Musicians".
[4] Performances started at 7pm and, like its predecessor in Moor Street, the season lasted from early June until the end of September.
[5] King Street was built for the actor-manager Richard Yates – then at the peak of his fame at London's Theatre Royal, Drury Lane[6] – after his highly successful visit to Birmingham the previous year with "a company who announced themselves 'His Majesty's Servants, from the theatres royal, in London'".
[7] King Street hosted the premiere of an original play when Hull's Henry II; or, Tha Fall of Rosamond was written and performed at Shenstone's instigation on 28 August 1761,[8] over a decade before premieres at Bristol in 1775, Richmond in 1776, Manchester in 1778 and York in 1779 provide evidence of such creative activity taking place in other towns outside London.