7 JANUARY 1843, Page 13

The showy and effective opera of' Gustavus has been reproduced

with considerable splendour : AIIIIER'S lively music, the beautiful scenery by GRIEVE, and the glittering spectacle of the masked ball, are attractions at this season not likely to suffer much diminution by the inefficiency of the principal performers. The part of Ankerstroom, formerly filled by H. PraLurs, is now assumed by GIUBELEI; and Heastsos is Lilienhorn, in place of TEMPLETON ; Miss POOLE the Page, in lieu of Miss SHIRREFF, Miss BETTS Madame Anherstroom, and Miss COLLETT the fortune-teller ; LEFFLER and TRAVERS are the two conspirators, and COOPER is Gustavus. The choruses are numerous, and well drilled ; the dancing is passable ; and the crowd of maskers fill the stage, which is brilliantly lit up in the last scene. One of those farces which seem to be produced by some mechanical contrivance for making combinations of old materials without having recourse to nature for character, situation, or humour, was brought out at this theatre on Wednesday, under the title of The Highwayman ; so called because a footpad figures as one of the numerous dramatis personae. The preposterous incidents, the continual bustle in which the stage was kept, and the grimaces of the actors, made people laugh ; but what it was all about, would be difficult and tedious to tell ; except that BARTLEY, MEADOWS, and HARLEY, are successively mistaken for other persons, on the slightest hint of disguise afforded by a hat and coat ; and that the ingenious complication of cross-purposes results in the happiness of two runaway couples : for any acting required, the performers might have played their parts as well without opening their lips, or even showing their faces-unless for the purpose of grimacing.