6 APRIL 1850, Page 9

As usual, Easter has been celebrated by the production of

some novelty, splendid in decoration, at nearly every one of the English theatres. Pan- tomimes, by a rule whereof the memory of man knoweth nothing to the contrary, are always excluded from Paschal rites ; but grand spectacles are the order of the day, according to the most unexceptionable canons ; and in the category of spectacle the showy burlesque of the present day is comprised.

At Drury Lane burlesque is eschewed, and an effort is made to revive the serious spectacle of other days. This sort of piece has re- cently become obsolete ; but there are doubtless readers old enough to remember Cherry and Fair Star, Peter Wilkins, and the like. The middle of the nineteenth century seems scarcely to retain faith enough to relish these fairy exhibitions in sober earnest; and hence the modern burlesque, while it claims admiration from the eye, always encourages laughter at its subject. The Devils Ring, as the Drury Lane piece is called, is exceedingly simple in its story, while it is complicated in its mechanical effects. A magician carries off a young lady to the respective regions of the four elements, one after another; but she has a valorous lover, who with the assistance of a magic ring and a wishing-branch successively rescues her from them all. From the very beginning one sees how the contest will turn out ; for it is like a game of cards when one party has a showy hand and the other all the trumps. Vice locks up the young lady in a mansion of fire, but Virtue has a car which can float on liquid sulphur; Vice takes its victim down the Falls of Niagara into a submarine abode, but Virtue makes her rise up to the surface of the waters; Vice undaunted shakes the Princess into the bowels of the earth by means of an earthquake, Virtue allows her to escape by constructing a very handsome staircase. The whole object of the piece is to obtain four or five gorgeous tableaux; as distinct as possible from each other: and here the manager has been most successful, the proces- sion with which it concludes being one of the most splendid things of the kind ever witnessed. The comic dialogue should have been more smartly written; for it is impossible to make it short, consistently with its purpose of filling up the time required for the preparation of the elaborate scenes.

At the Lyceum, the never-to-be-forgotten Christmas piece of The Island of Jewels is retained, on account of its enduring powers of attraction. In addition, however, there is a burlesque on Garrick's Cymon and Iphigenia ; written by the neat pen of Mr. Planche, and illustrated by the magic pencil of Mr. Beverley. The chief feature of this work is the reproduc- tion of pastoral life in that peculiar form which is represented to us through the medium of Dresden china. The effect of the bewigged shep- herds and shepherdesses is at once comical and picturesque : indeed, no one understands better how to turn the rococo into the beautiful than the -directing powers of the Lyceum. The characters that most bring out histrionic talent are the personified " First of April,"—permitting Mr. Charles Mathews to display all that vocal volubility in which he is un- rivalled ; and the stupid swain " Cymon,"—acted with admirable niaiserie by Miss Julia St. George, a young lady ho has the fairest prospect of rising to a high position in her profession • she is decidedly one of the best novices of the day. The old woman:Dorcas, by Mr. F. Matthews, is another very clever assumption.

The brothers Brough, who have burlesqued Ivanhoe for the advantage of the Haymarket Theatre, have worked on their usual principle of find- ing modern equivalents for the personages of an old story. .‘ Isaac, the Jew of York," admirably played by Mr. Keeley, is a compound of Fagin and the modern outfitter ; Cedric," whose prejudices are pompously rolled forth by Mr. Bland, is a Protectionist and a six-bottle man; so on. The cast, comprising Mrs. Keeley, Miss P. Horton; Mr. Buckstone, and Mrs. Fitzvrilliam, is more than usually strong : perhaps, indeed, too much effort has been made to secure a large quantity of leading charac- ters, for they do not all come out with an effect commensurate to the his- trionic rank of their supporters. Mr. Keeley's Jew, and the songs of Miss Horton as Rebecca, are the most striking features in the piece, as far as the actors are concerned. In point of dialogue Ivanhoe is equal to any production by the brothers Brough; in point of construction it is de- fective. The first act, full of movement, and ending with an admirably- managed tournament, is excellent; but the second, from its paucity of in- cident, comes in as an anti-climax.

A piece on the early career of the musician Lulli, which has been played with great success at Paris, has been adapted into English by Mr. Webster, and was produced at the Adelphi on Easter Monday. The characters of Lulli and Quinault the poet are effective parts for Madame Celeste and Miss Woolgar ; and the piece is splendidly put on the stage, though it does not belong to the category of "Easter piece."

La Fie aux Roses, an opera-book by M. Scribe, has furnished a subject for the Princess's spectacle, called the Queen of the Roses; which is a gorgeous affair enough. Astley's has had recourse to the great Parisian "hit" of Les Quatre File d'Aymon, which half turned the brains of the most civilized capital in the world at the beginning of the present year. Another " feerie fantastique," with modern allusions, has been produced at the Surrey, under the title of The Three Princes. Altogether, this has been a very active and fortunate Easter.