[1] In 1721 his first comedy, The Chimera, a satirical piece aimed at the speculators in Change Alley, was produced at the theatre in Lincoln's Inn Fields, but met with small success on the boards, though when printed it ran to a second edition before the close of the year.
[1] In October 1729 Odell erected a theatre at Goodman's Fields, and engaged a company, with Henry Giffard as its leading actor.
He produced there in the course of his first season The Recruiting Officer, The Orphan, and two successful original comedies, Henry Fielding's The Temple Beau and John Mottley's The Widow Bewitched.
Odell tried to avert hostile criticism by shutting up the house for a time, but this so impaired its prospects that he had to dispose of it early in 1731 to his friend Giffard.
He had lost his pension upon the death of the fourth Earl of Sunderland, his plays met with no success, and he seems to have been for some years reduced to great straits for a living.