The Sun.
London, England, 1861-12-27 00:00:00

PRINCESS'S.

The first piece at this theatre last night was the
" Cricket on the Hearth," which was gone through
in a style that elicited frequent applause from the
holiday audience. Many portions of the piece were
rendered with great truthfulness. The spectacle of
the evening was a grand pantomime, entitled
" Whittington and his Cat, or Harlequin King
Kollywobbol and the Genius of Good Humour," a
very humorous Christmas piece, in which the author
(Mr. Henry J. Byron) presents a large number of
v
exceedingly droll, ddraolllli, the u&ig scones. Many of themcare veryg otedialogue was admirable,
r.
and the whole of the dramatis persona thoroughly
up to their work. The piece opens with King
Rat (Mr. Collett) who, in a sort of underground
railway, proceeds to carry out some evil spells to
mar the fortunes of Dick Whittington, a sober and
honest youth; but he is inimical to the Rat King,
who has for his protege a young gentleman that, in
loose language, is known as Bad Lot (Mr. Garden).
The latter is a very wicked apprentice—a kind of
George Barnwell, who shuns the light and does not
know what honesty means. We then have the
entrance of Good Humour (Mies Ellen Howard) who
appears upon the scene and frustrates the plans of '

1 King Rat and protects Dick Whittington, who
appears to be a very cheery and civil-minded young
gentleman. The introduction of Good Humour leads
to a very brilliant scene representing a bower of
roses, in which the really efficient ballet of the
theatre admirably exhibit their Terpsichorean at-
tainments; and Robin Goodfellow (Master Ilaslem)
is sent, in the likeness of a cat, to watch over the
welfare of Dick Whittington. This cat is a very
clever one. We are then introduced to ancient East-
chepe, where there is represented a spleddid exte-
rior view of Master Fitzwarren's shop. As a mat-
ter of course Turn again Whittington becomes
enamoured of a Miss Fitzwarren (Miss Pauline
Leclercq), but the wicked apprentice, Bad Lot,
accuses Dick of having made away with certain
meat (a loin of veal) and drink, but which had been
appropriated by a cook and presented to her lover,
Bull's Eye (Mr. Moreland), a member of the force.
The unfortunate Whittington is given in charge,
but he escapes from the police, and is found sleep-
ing on the milestone at Highgate—probably the one
which is now to be seen near the residence of the
benevolent Miss Burdett Contts. Another matter
of course is that Dick is awoke by the bells ringing
out, Return again Whittington, Lord Mayor of
London town. Bad Lot has followed and is about
to kill him, but Dick is protected by the cat, which
accompanies him as a protector throughout his
career. Dick goes through various adventures, and
is cast ashore with his cat in the territories of
King Kollywobbo!, whose kingdom is de-
vastated by rats, the number of which
had increased since the old enemy of Dick
—viz., Bad Lot, had been introduced in the
region through being wrecked on the coast. Dick
eventually gets rid of Bad Lot, and marries the
Princess. The pantomime was admirably put on
the stage, and the music in excellent keeping with
the characteristics of the piece; but we think the
author has neglected abundant opportunities of
introducing some good old English ballads, which
would add materially to its success. The " cat"
was a capital performance, and frequently put the
house in "roars of laughter." The piece requires
only a slight curtailment in some parts to render it
a favourite with the public.