THE THEATRES.
THE novelty of the week is the &Mt of Miss Cushman, an American' actress of celebrity, at the Princess's Theatre. She appeared as Bianca, the heroine of Mr. Millman's melodramatic tragedy of Fazio. Miss Cush- man labours under the disadvantage of an unprepossessing appearance: her face is a feminine caricature of Mr. Macready's physiognomy. Her deport- ment, too, is ungraceful; her attitudes are inelegant, her movements abrupt and angular; and her style of acting is rude and violent. Her declamation is defective even to the extent of false emphasis; and her voice, though both mellow and powerful, is not under sufficient control—its tones require more skilful modulation. In short, all the refinements of the histrionic art are wanting. Yet, in spite of these physical and artistic defects, Miss Cush- man made a powerful impression, and carried the audience along with her throughout, by the sheer force of passionate emotion, and masculine energy and determination of purpose. She threw herself heart and soul into the character; and sustained it throughout with intense feeling and earnestness: her by-play was full of significance, and though she often overacted there was no ranting. M;.4 Cushman possesses many of the re- quisites for the stage; but she has much to learn and to unlearn, before she can hope to satisfy critical judgment in tragedy. She has evidently taken Macready for her model: her imitations of that tragedian, however, were slight compared with the complete copy of his mannerisms exhibited by Mr. Graham, who played Fazio. Mr. Forrest, the American tragedian, is also engaged at the Princess's, and will appear on Monday. An ingenious little French piece of love-making, called The Carbonari, was produced at the same theatre this week. Mrs. Stirling and Miss E. Stanley played very cleverly; and Compton as an amorous gaoler was ar- tificially droll: but, the two Carbonari being ill represented, the piece was ineffective.
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