in the 18th century, shakespeare dominated the london stage, while shakespeare productions turned increasingly into the creation of star turns for star actors. after the licensing act of 1737, one fourth of the plays performed were by shakespeare, and on at least two occasions rival london playhouses staged the very same shakespeare play at the same time ("romeo and juliet" in 1755 and "king lear" the next year) and still commanded audiences. this occasion was a striking example of the growing prominence of shakespeare stars in the theatrical culture, the big attraction being the competition and rivalry between the male leads at covent garden and drury lane, spranger barry and david garrick. in the 1740s, charles macklin, in roles such as malvolio and shylock, and david garrick, who won fame as richard iii in 1741, helped make shakespeare truly popular. garrick went on to produce 26 of the plays at drury lane theatre between 1747 and 1776, and he held a great shakespeare jubilee at stratford in 1769. he freely adapted shakespeare's work, however, saying of "hamlet": "i had sworn i would not leave the stage till i had rescued that noble play from all the rubbish of the fifth act. i have brought it forth without the grave-digger's trick, osrick, & the fencing match." apparently no incongruity was perceived in having barry and garrick, in their late thirties, play adolescent romeo one season and geriatric king lear the next. 18th century notions of verisimilitude did not usually require an actor to be physically appropriate for a role, a fact epitomized by a 1744 production of "romeo and juliet" in which theophilus cibber, then forty, played romeo to the juliet of his teenaged daughter jennie.