As has been mentioned previously, All's Well That Ends Well was not a popular play, both during the time it was written and in the centuries that have followed. Today, thanks to renewed interest in topics like gender and sexuality as well as efforts to revive some of Shakespeare's less famous work, the play is performed more than it was during its original era. Still, most critics agree that All's Well That Ends Well joins the company of The Two Gentlemen of Verona as one of Shakespeare's most lackluster productions.
The lack of interest in the play becomes apparent when looking at its performance history. There are no recorded productions of the play in either the sixteenth or seventeenth centuries (Shakespeare died in 1616). In fact, according to records, the play was performed for the first time in 1741 at the Goodman's Fields Theatre in London. It later transferred to Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, a theater on the west end. During these performances in the eighteenth century, so many leading actresses experienced injuries and illnesses that the play developed an "unlucky" reputation similar to that of Macbeth. At the same time, Henry Woodward made popular the part of Parolles, which many speculate as the reason behind the play's continued (albeit sporadic) performances into the nineteenth century.
However, during the nineteenth century, the play came under harsh criticism. With the Victorian Era ushering in more traditional and conservative gender expectations, the play raised a red flag for theater critics. The character of Helena was deemed "predatory" and "immodest" in her pursuit of Bertram, and many critics spoke out against the play's inversion of gender norms. The play thus experienced a lull in performances until, in 1896, Frank S. Boas grouped the play in with more popular Shakespearean works like Hamlet, Troilus and Cressida, and Measure for Measure when he coined the term "problem play."
