The Sun.
London, England, 1865-12-27 00:00:00

trials and sorrows of a lone creature were full of over tables and chairs, and while she escapes he
humour, and yet could hardly be said to be un- comes ignominiously to the ground, complaining bit-
feminine. But if Aladdin be fortunate in having terly of his " bruised shins." Swankey enters, and
such a mother be is even more enviable on ac- discovers Fluke on the ground. This increases his
count of the charming Princess bestowed on jealousy, which has been aroused by his finding a
him in the transformation scene by the good Fairy love epistle written by Fluke on his wife's table, and
Diamond. The Princess Badroulbadour has not he resolves to bring matters to an issue. Be sends
much to say, it is true, but she should look lovely, Tripes (Mr. C. J. Smith) for a cleaver,
much to the
and does, as impersonated, byMiss Blanche Elliston. dismay of Fluke, and forcing open the door of the
When we say that the part of Abanazar, the African closet brings forth Sarah Jane Snivey (Miss GOd
magician, falls to Mr. W. H. Payne, and that Mr. sail), who declares herself the object of Fluke!
Fred. Payne is Kazrac, the dumb, " but honest," affection. Fluke, congratulating himself upon his
attendant of the wicked wonder-worker, our readers escape from the fury of Swankey, readily endorses_
will understand at once the superlative pantomime her assertion and avows himself her " devoted,' and
and dumb show, the rapid strokes of business, the matters are thus amicably adjusted. The different
fine feats of tumbling that take place when Aban- characters were made the most of, Mr. Toole elicit-
azar and his slave are on the stage. It is to be ing throughout hearty applause. Altogether the
wished, perhaps, that the Magician had exercised a farce of Mr. Webster may fairly be pronounced a
little of his mystic art to imprint the words of his success. The drama of " Rip van Winkle " was
part on his memory more completely ; but the first afterwards performed before a crowded and appre-
night of a pantomime is not the time when critical ciative audience, and passed for the 102 d time with
severity is needed. The scenery throughout is ex- its usual success.
cellent. A street in Canton is represented with the
shops open, and traders and customers engaged in
selling and buying, with an air of reality that al-
most makes us pause to ask whether-we have not
been transported to the native land of Chang.
Another very charming scene in the Garden of
Jewels, where golden palms are laden with ruby
pippins and pearl pears. The manner in which the
Genius of the Lamp—a giant, before whom a joint-
stock amalgamation of Chang and Anak would
dwindle into insignificance—bears off the Palace of
Aladdin to Africa, is a capitally contrived scene.
As the Genius soars up with the magnificent pile
on his shoulders, a calm, moonlit sea is revealed
beyond with an effect as startling as it is pleasing.
The transformation scene is a triumph of mechanism
as well as art. It would be almost impossible to
describe how the leafy labyrinth gives place to the
coral deeps of a lake on whose bosom float number-
less water-lilies ; how the lake subsides, and the
branching corals with clusters of fays branch out into
an enormous fan; how other fays emerge from pearly
shells ; and how the car of Phoebus, the Bright
Lamp of Day, with its four pawing steeds, mounts
in dazzling brilliance at the back of the vast stage.
It would be impossible to close our mention of Covent
Garden pantomime without bestowing a word of high
praise on the two ballets which occur in it. We have
seldom seen so much fancy and elegance, so much
taste in the harmonious blending of colours, as dis-
tinguish them. They might fairly be given as sepa-
rate entertainments, and would be quite strong
enough to run alone. The Chinese ballet in parti-
cular is very varied and novel, but the dance of the
jewels is also artistically arranged, and very new in
the point of costume. In his transformations,
although he departs a little from the established
usage, Mr. Blanchard decidedly awards poetical
justice. It has always seemed to us that to trans-
form the virtuous and deserving lovers into Harle-
quin and Columbine, fated to lead a life of springs
and spangles, pursued perpetually by Clown, and
his old and iniquitous friend, smacked rather of
human justice than that of fairyland. Mr. Blan-
chard dismisses Aladdin and Badroulbadour to
" live happy ever afterwards," without the necessity
of jumping through Bennett's clock, or being bas-
ket-tricked by Pantaloon. Kazrac becomes Harle-
quin, having for Columbine the transformed at-
tendant of the Princess. Of the dansing of Mr.
Fred. Payne and Mdle. Esta, as Harlequin and
Columbine, of the drolleries of Mr. Harry Payne
(retired conjuror) as Clown, and Sir Paul Herring
as Pantaloon and ex-Vizier, we have not space to
speak at length. The comic business went very
smoothly for a first night—the tricks were telling,
and several good hits were made, which were ac-
knowledged by a delighted and uproarious audience
as they deserve to be.

ST. JAMES'S.
Notwithstanding the announcement, " that ill
consequence of the unprecedented success attending
the representation of ' The School for Scandal,' it
will be repeated on Boxing-night," &c., it, accom-
panied by a special Christmas piece, failed to draw
last night anything like a good house ; there was a
pretty fair pit and gallery, but the stalls were poorly
filled, and the dress circle was almost empty. It
would seem that most persons unacquainted with
the details of behind the scenes a strange freak of
management to produce, during Christmas week, so
long a play as " The School for Scandal." However,
even the gods tolerated it pretty well, being in the
dark probably to understand what they were to see
'afterwards, the description of the Christmas piece
being on the bills as follows :—" A metamorphosed,
ollapodoridical, boy and gal-limaufrical, extravagan-
zical, pantomimical, and nondescriptical rehearsal
called " Please to Remember the grotto ; or, The
Manageress in a Fix," and really the ma-
nageress must have been "in a fix" when
she consented to the production of this
piece. It is never interesting to. the public
to know the difficulties of a manager in selecting
a piece, and the conversations that take place be-
tween him and authors. This piece, however,
commences with a conversation between Miss Her-
bert and her stage manager, Mr. Sanger, and Mr.
Belton, who has written and wishes to have pro-
duced a pantomime. In lamenting her difficulties
in selecting a suitable entertainment for Christmas
she takes occasion to refer to the competition found
in the present day, from Shakespearan readings by
clergymen to tumbling in music halls, in no very
gracious terms, and after a long rigmarole of this
kind of thing Mr. Belton announces that Miss
Herbert's manager has consented to produce his
pantomime, and thatthe company are ready dressed
for a rehearsal. Miss Herbert consents, and then
in succession Mr. F. Charles appears as Harlequin,
Mr. Frank Matthews as Clown, Mr. F. Robson as
Pantaloon, and Miss A. Colinson as Columbine.
It is hardly necessary to say that the performers are
ill at home in such characters, but there is some-
thing so ridiculous in Frank Matthews appearing
as Clown, and something so droll in his face, that
no one could help laughing at him ; without bins
the sketch, or whatever it is to be called,
would
have been simply intolerable, and his humour se-
cured for him a call before the curtain. Miss A.
Collinson made, too, a good Columbine. As to
the pantomime business, it was of the commonest
kind and introduced the worst of the old tricks

which have been produced year after year with
unvarying certainty and little profit. The final
scene, the Choral Caves of the Ocean, is exceed-
ingly pretty, but on the whole " Please to remem-
ber the Grotto" is a failure, and is not likely to
run long.

HAY MARKET.

It can hardly be said there is any special holiday
fare at this market, although there is capital enter-
tainment for man and—woman. Mr. Sothern, after
a considerable absence from London, returned last
night, and reappeared in his last new character of
Brother Sam, in which he was welcomed with all
the cordiality usually awarded to him. This piece
being well known, needs no further remark than to
say it seems to retain its wonted popularity.
The novelty of the evening, however, was the
new operatic burlesque of " Orpheus in the Hay-
market," which, as the production and adaptation
of one of our ablest and oldest dramatists, Mr.
Plauche, was eagerly looked for, and which we are
happy to say produced a corresponding admiration.
It is a light, elegant, and smart rendering of Offen-
bach's famous operetta " L'Orfee aux Enfers," the
music of which has been made so well known to
the Loudon public by its clever rendering at the
Oxford Music Hall.

It may be justly said of this operatic burlesque
that it is refined and witty, and quite worthy of
those early productions which raised burlesque
writing into an art and extravaganzas into a species
of poetry. As Mr. Planche was the first, so he was
and is the best writer of this kind of entertainment
that we have had, or are likely to have. He never
violated taste to create a laugh, nor so handled his
subjects as to desecrate them. Burlesque has lat-
terly too much approached to brutality, and rather
represents the comic drama in its most uncouth days
when some gross clown smeared his face with wine
lees and uttered any desecration of heroic ideas that
could enter his satyr-like mind. If burlesque have
any office it is rather by the nicest raillery and the
most delicate extravagance to expose the fopperies
of sentiment and the exaggerations of the heroic,
than to seek with broad grins and hideous antics to
mock and gibe at the beautiful, the true, and the
pathetic. Mr. Planche has never done this, and
all that he is answerable for is having invented a
kind of entertainment which no one can follow
with like taste and good sense.

The present rendering of Offenbach's delightful
opera " Buffa" is in every way creditable to this
theatre. Several new engagements have been made
to render it musically well, and the dressing and
scenery are elegant and clever. In addition to the
already clever actors of the theatre, viz. :—Mr. W.
Farren, Miss Snowdon, Miss Nelly Moore, Miss

Fanny Wright, and Miss Louise Feely ; Mr. David
Fisher, Mr. Bartleman, Miss Helen Howard, Miss
H. Lindley, and Miss Ellen Woolgar have been
engaged. It was acted and sung with remarkable
spirit and effect, and it most undoubtedly is a great
success, and will for a long time draw the town to
it. The charming music, the capital acting, the
picturesque scenery, and the many handsome women
engaged in it will make it superlatively attractive.