The Sun.
London, England, 1860-11-27 00:00:00

THEATRE-ROYAL, LYCEUM.

♦lways alive to the amusement of her patrons—the
public—Madame Celeste has, during the present season,
produced several new pieces, not, it must be confessed,
without one " distinguished failure ;" but the shortcomings
of the opening have been fully redeemed by the brilliancy
of the recent performances at this very pretty theatre. Last
night Mr. John Drew, who has run the gauntlet with suc-
cess on the Dublin stage, and is introduced to London with
the " best letters of recommendation" from the critics of
that city, who, we may assume, are the very best judges of
the qualifications which aro necessary to constitute a
good stage / epresentative of Irish character, made his
first appearance in London. Mr. Drew's good charac-
ter, therefore, had gone before him ; and the audience
of last night were quite prepared to test Mr. Drew, as the
lawyers say, on his "merits." The piece selected for this
gentleman tS debut ihu Lycetuu -wfts-au ntlaptatton or the
well-known story, by Lover, of "Handy Andy "—" a
fellow who has the knack of doing every thing the
wrong way;" but this mal-adroitness is compensated
for by such an infinite amount of humour and of ridi-
culous contretemps, that the Irish boy ruffles our
temper into a hearty laugh at every shuffle of the
cards in the little game of life in which he plays a part.
Mr. Drew's humour is genuine and unobtrusive ; there is
nothing of the stage clap-trap about it ; indeed, we never
remember to have seen an actor who availed himself less of
stage conventionalities. His dress, his walk, his mild
brogue, and his Irish " intonation," are of the genuine
school, without the slightest attempt at exaggeration, and
told with unerring effect upon the eye and ear of the audi •
ence, as every successive round of applause testified to the
merits of the new-comer. In short, Mr. Drew's performance
of last night was a complete success.

The novel of "Handy Andy"—as, indeed, is every work
of Lover's—is a masterpiece of good plot and fun, and
exhibits a very life-like picture of the foxhunting and
claret-drinking Irish squire of the good old times, and the
shrewd or roguish attorney, fond of cock-fighting and
whisky-punch, with high spirited youths and pretty girls
in the back-ground, not forgetting the " boy" and
the Oonah Rooney, who can never be removed from
the group without damaging the picture. And what would
such a picture be worth without love-making and a fight
A fight, indeed I A better fight was never got up on any
stage than that in " Handy Andy" last night. And the
house fairly shook with laughter and applause. And then
the sweet-hearting with Rooney (Miss Hudspeth) it was a
specimen of very fine acting I We should catalogue every
point in the piece if we were to quote all the good things
said and done, and our readers will be pleased to accept
our most unqualified certificate in Mr. Drew's favour.
Madame Celeste has shown great discrimination and sound
judgment in inviting Mr. Drew to her establishment.
Mr. Drew was ably supported by Mr. Johnstone as Tom
Murphy, the sporting Irish attorney ; Mr. Lyon, as Squire
Egan, a good specimen of a fine old Irish gentleman ; Mr.
Campbell as O'Grady, a very bad specimen; Mr. Villiers
and Mr. Butler, as Dick Dawson and Edward O'Connor ;
and Mr. Forrester as the attorney's clerk. Mrs. Rouse
filled the part of Nance Nolan, and Miss Ternan and Miss
Neville those of Mrs. Egan and Fanny Dawson. Through-
out, the piece was remarkably well acted, and with excel-
lent spirit, and regard being had to the difficulty which
always belongs to reducing to a dramatic form a popular
novel—the arrangement as well as the dialogue successfully
sustained the distinctness of the plot and the interest of the
story.

The amusements of the evening opened with the charm-
ing melange of " The Pets of the Parterre," which con-
tinues to be received with as much enthusiasm as when it
was first produced. The new drama of "Adrienne" closed
the performance. The house was remarkably well filled.

* S 2. JAMES'S THEATRE.

Mdlle. Albina di Rhona, made her first appearance last
night in a little sketch written for the display of her talent
as a dancer. Very pretty, and with a little elegant figure,
expressive face, and graceful action, Mdlle. di Rhona soon
won the favour of the audience, and was greeted in each
successive pas with thunders of applause. In the little
skeleton of plot of the piece (which is called " Smack for
Smack") she personates a young French girl, wbo so cap-
tivates an English soldier that he foregoes for her sake a
determination to avenge an insult offered by a Frenchman
to his sister by boxing the ears of the first French girl he
encountered, and finally abstracts a kiss from the savage
Briton. The Cracovienne, the Highland Fling, and one or
two other dances, were performed with great spirit and
taste, and the young lady was well seconded by the blunt
absurdities of Mr. Belmore.

The Due de Beauffreraont has left Dover-street
for Paris.

The Earl and Countess of Lichfield have left Far-
rance's Hotel for Shugborough, Staffordshire.
The Earl and Countess Delawarr and family,
accompanied by Lady W. Russell, and Mrs. L. Fox, will
leave Buckhurst Park next week, for Paris.

Viscount and Viscountess Sydney have returned
to Frognal, in Kent, from visiting the Hon. Francis and
Mrs. Baring, at their seat in Norfolk.
Lord Chelmsford has arrived in town from the
Pavilion Hotel, Folkestone.
COMMUNICATION WITII CONTINENT.—The
special trains between London and Folkestone in connec-
tion with the tidal service to Paris will be continued every
day during the month of December, and also those between
Boulogne and Paris on the days when the ordinary fast
trains do not afibrd a convenient correspondence with the
boats. The result will be to furnish a daily tidal service
equally convenient in every respect as that which has
been so punctually performed during the summer
season, with the sole exception of twelve hours
being allowed for the transit instead of ten and a-half
hours. Notwithstanding this increase of time, the ser-
vice will be performed much more efficiently this winter
than it has yet been during the interval extending from
November to April, and for the first time the interpreting
canductora:travelling throughout each day in charge of the
luggag6 have been retained during the winter season.