Silk and satin theatre playbills and programmes were produced from the 18th century onwards, to commemorate special evenings at the theatre. Most theatres in the 19th century would have had some made to mark grand openings or milestone performances. By the end of the First World War however the practice had generally died out, only being revived very occasionally, more often at London's opera houses than any other theatres.

This programme was produced for the last week of Henry Farnie's enormously successful burlesque Blue Beard at London's Folly Theatre in October 1876, starring Lydia Thompson, the highest-paid and most popular star of the 1870s burlesque stage. It also advertises the forthcoming production of the burlesque Robinson Crusoe starring Lydia Thompson as Selim. Blue Beard had been a hit since Lydia Thompson first performed it in New York in 1871. After a five-year tour in the United States, her husband Alexander Henderson produced it in London at the Charing Cross Theatre, opening on 19 September 1874, transferring it to the Globe Theatre on 24 December 1874, where it ran until the following July. A Christmas version was produced in November 1875 at the Globe Theatre, and after a tour in the summer and autumn, it returned to the Charing Cross Theatre on 16 October, when Henderson re-named the theatre the Folly.