The Sun.
London, England, 1863-04-07 00:00:00

STRAND.

Mr. Byron has acted wisely this year in going to Eastern
fiction for the subject of his burlesque at this house, and in
chossing the story_ of the Forty Thieves" he his also
showiCjudgment. Few stories present more variety of
incident and character for the burlesque writer to work
upon, or a plot more simple and interesting or more familiar
to every man, woman, and child among the audience. It
has been presented in the form of an extravaganza at least
half a dozen times during the last fifteen years—from the
time when Messrs. Gilbert a Beckett and Mark Lemon
placed it on the Lyceum stage, to the " Savage Club" per-
formance for a literary charity. No amount of repetition
seems to exhaust its attractiveness, and " Ali Baba, or the
Thirty Nine Thieves," at the Strand Theatre, promises to
be another of Mr. Byron's many successes in this peculiar
walk of dramatic literature.

One feature to be commended in this version is the ab•
Fence of female parts played by men. Very rarely can this
burlesque trick be performed without bringing coarseness
and vulgarity on the stage, and we are glad to find that the
piece has been cast without any of these violent transfor•
mations. Ganem and Abdallah are both played by ladies,
but this is in good taste ; and the latter character, so sus-
tained, calla up recollections of the elegant Miss Fair-
brother.

The story of the "Forty Thieves.' is so well known that
we need waste no time in repeating it. Mr. Byron has
treated it with the usual license allowed to burlesque authors,
and has obtained a very effective situation in the cave scene,
by causing all the thieves to be turned into stone by Mor-
giana and the enchanter Orcobrand, and so rescuing Cassim
Baba. The business of the jar scene is carried a little too
far when the ghastly head of one of the murdered thieves is
drawn up by Hassarac and played with, but with this ex-
ception the piece is singularly free from anything that can
offend the most fastidious hater of burlesque. The writing
is sparkling—and daring when it dashes after puns—and
many of the songs are very happy as parodies. The
scenery and dresses are equal to anything that has been
seen at this theatre, and that is saying a great deal ; and the
music, arranged by Mr. Musgrave, is well selected and

executed.
The acting in all the parts leaves little to be desired.
Miss Ada Swanborough as Abdallah, Miss Polly Marshall
as Ganem, and Miss Charlotte Saunders as Morgiana were
all excellent—the first as a swell captain, the second us a
saucy boy, and the third as a faithful serio-comic maid of
all work. Mr. Turner was jovial as Ali Baba ; and Mr.
Frank Seymour—an 31d member of the company—made a
very successful reappearance as Cassim Bat a. The Fin •
cipal part, Hassarac (a part, by the way, which the author
sustained last night at Mr. Swanborough's theatre in Bir-
mingham), was most humourously and artistically rendered
by Mr. George Honey. His musical acquirements, as we
expected, were remarkably useful in the concerted music
and mock operatic arias, but he did more for the part than
this—he gave an entirely new version of the mock melodra-
matic ruffian, and his bye play overflowed with grotesque
fancy. All the other performers exerted themselves in the
most praiseworthy manner, and the result was a genuine
success, and the loudest applause for everybody at the fall
of the curtain.

WESTMINSTER (ASTLEY'S.)
Mr. Boucicault re-opened this theatre last night, after
a week's holiday, with the Scotch drama of "Effie
Deans." A few new faces were seen amongst the per-
formers. Mr. F. Robinson replaces Mr. Swinbourne as
Geordie Robertson; and Mr. Charles Vincent now playa
the Duke of Argyll. The drama was preceded by the farce
of '. John Jones ;" and the entertainments concluded with
the farce of " Mr. and Mrs. White," in which Mr. Fred.
Lloyd, from fhe Theatre Koyal Manchester, sustained the
principal character.