Frank J. Wilstach, comp. A Dictionary of Similes. 1916.
Theatre
A theatre, unfortunately, is like a stage-coach: empty or full, it starts at the same time.
—Honoré de Balzac
The stage is more beholding to love than the life of man; for as to the stage, love is ever matter of comedies, and now and then of tragedies; but in life it doth much mischief, sometimes like a siren, sometimes like a fury.
—Francis Bacon
Theatrical Favour, like Publick Commerce, will sometimes deceive the best Judgements by an unaccountable change of its Channel; the best Commodities are not always known to meet with the best Markets.
—Colley Cibber
The Theatre is like a Turkish seraglio: the critics are the eunuchs.
—George Farquhar