The Wheel of Fortune: A Comedy is a comedy in five acts written by playwright Richard Cumberland and first presented at the Drury Lane Theatre in London on 28 February 1795, with a prologue and an epilogue. The original cast included John Philip Kemble as Penruddock, Robert Palmer as David Daw, Thomas King as Tempest, George Bland as Jenkins, John Whitfield as Woodville, John Palmer as Sydenham, Charles Kemble as Henry Woodville, Richard Suett as Weazel, Francis Godolphin Waldron as Woodville's Servant, Walter Maddocks as Penruddock's Servant, John Phillimore as Attendant, Jane Powell as Mrs. Woodville, Elizabeth Farren as Emily Tempest and Charlotte Tidswell as Maid.

Richard Cumberland was an English dramatist and civil servant. In 1771 his hit play The West Indian was first staged. During the American War of Independence he acted as a secret negotiator with Spain in an effort to secure a peace agreement between the two nations. He also edited a short-lived critical journal called The London Review (1809). His plays are often remembered for their sympathetic depiction of characters generally considered to be on the margins of society.