The Sun. — 1832-12-29 (London, England)

SADLER'S WELLS.  At this theatre, which was greatly crowded, a new firstpiece (which, we believe to be a translation from the French) was produced, entitled The Iron Collar, which had reference to the denouncement of a respectable merchant (Blondel), who, it seems, thirty years before, had escaped from the galleys, to which he had been condemned for murder. Dumont, the person who gives him up to the civil power, is his bosom friend, whom he had raised from indigence, and assisted with loans of large sums of money ; and the time chosen for the treacherous act is the very day e.f his daughter's marriage; when, in order to provide her with a portion, Blondel claims the sum due. in order, therefore, to get rid of a heavy debt, as well as to be revenged on Blondel for preferring another suitor to his nephew, Dumont, denounces his friend and benefit:tor as a felon. Much confusion, of course, ensues; the marriage festival is interrupted, and the unfortunate merchant is in the act of being dragged to the galleys at Rochelle, when the King's pardon (granted some years before) is found in the bureau of the informer, who had concealed it, and it is generously brought forward by his nephew, who chooses thus to evince his attachment to Blondel and his daughter, although rejected by them as a sou-in-law and husband. Upon these materials, a rather interesting plot has been constructed ; but the unruly disposition of the " gods abive," prevented us from being fully acquainted with it. The performers, generally, played well, particularly PALMER, who is a very clever and superior actor. Miss FORDE and W. H. WILLIAMS were very comic as the Colin and Cdinette of the piece ; but we did not a little regret that the character of the former afforded her no opportunity of exerting her musical powers. The piece that followed, however, which was an operetta entitled Pay to my Order, and similar to The Chaste Salute of the Olympic, compensated in some degree for the disappointment. Here the lady in question sang, as she always does, divinely. Mr. HUNT appeared to labour under a cold and boarseness,which prevented him from singing as we, and himself, no doubt, could have wished. By the bye, such being tho cane, we did not see any particular necessity for the energy and ardour with which he saluted Madame Thebeaut. The report sounded to us more like a pistol-shot, than the kiss of a gentleman in a state of indisposition. It was too much of a good thing. The piece was, upon the whole, most creditably performed, and warrants the general opinion, that the nearest road to wealth for the managers of this house, is to get up a series of the best operas : they may rely on it that the musical taste of the inhabitants of the northern districts of the metropolis is not far behind that of those at the west end. the Pantomime which followed, under the title of Bumpty Dumpty, was the grand feature of the evening with the holyday folks, whose sides shook with laughter at the grotesque appearance of the characters, and who shouted their hearty applause of the fanciful and really splendid scenery, as well as of the new and very curious tricks introduced. Harlequin and Columbine were excellently played by SUTTON and Miss GRIFFITHS ; and, indeed, the other pantomimic characters performed their somersets and other gymnastic evolutions with an adroitness which gave general satisfact ion ; we may instance particularly three very clever young men, who, in a kind of clock-work dance, gave proofs of muscular elasticity very little inferior to that of the far famed Manumit. But if the gods and ,he yroundlings were delighted with the vagaries of Pollehinello and his comrades, the few who preserve the happy medium between earth and sky were no less so with a most beautifully executed Panorama (painted by Cocas) which was introduced ; in it were displayed splendid views of Portsmouth with its shipp:ng, the British Channel, Forts Bathz, Lillo, and Phillippe, on the coast of Holland, and the now so much talked of city of Antwerp. We had no idea that so charming a production of art could be afforded for exhibition at a Minor Theatre —it is really worth going ten miles to see. We trust that as soon as the fever and excitement of the holydays are over, the managers of this establishment will return, as we have hinted above, to Operatic performances; in doing which we wish them a continuance of that success in their career which has so auspiciously marked the commencement of the present season.