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

THEATRE-ROYAL, LTCEUiII.

Always alive to the amusement of her patrons—the
public—Madame Celeste has, (hiring 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 are necessary to constitute a
good stage representative 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's Mut at the Lyceum was an adaptation of 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 •
once, 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 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 1 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. Draw 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 mélange of " The Pets of the Parterre," which con-
tinues to be received with as ranch enthusiasm as when it
was first produced. The new drama of "Adrienne" closed
the performance. The house was remarkably well filled.