SUMMER THEATRICALS.
THE sunshine of the last fortnight, while it has cheered the hearts of the proprietors of Vauxhall and the waternien, has lengthened the faces of the managers of the Minor Theatres and the hackney- coachmen: but let not Minors nor Jarvies despair, though the dog-days are at hand—already the clouds threaten, and the gloom on their countenances is transferred to the sky. Their scale will preponderate, and that of Vauxhall once more kick the beam. When
rain falls, the Minors are looking up. The Summer Theatres and. Vauxhall constAute a barometer. Every visitor is his own ther- mometer.
Vauxhall has renewed its. youth this season; and the fire-works have gone off with eclat. They have got up an operetta as well as the open-air concert; and the promenaders may stop and peep at the cosmoramas that invite the eye on everyside. There is next an ascent on the rope, d-/aSacqui,iii the midst of the fire-works ; and the ineffable Mr. SIMPSON, the familiar of Vauxhall, haunts the supper-boxes, and hovers about ubiquitously in one perpetual bow. We have made the tour of the Summer Theatres, during the fine weather; and, for your sakes, gentle readers, have lost some pounds' of flesh in our progress. You have, doubtless, while corn fortably seated in your stanhope or britzka, bowling down to Ascot or Epsom, passed some biped toiling along the road, swathed ia sevenfold woollen, and looking like a corpulent cheese-mite on end ; and have pitied his loss of flesh, though the waist was not visible. If all your sympathy was not expended on the poor devil, think of us, pent up in a low-roofed back box, and breathing an atoms- phere compounded of gas and human breath—our strength oozing at every pore as in a vapourqiath—looking on at plays and players, that we had seen so often that we anticipated every line, and gesture, and therefore witnessed in fact eaoh perform- ance twice over; listening with envious mortification to the peak of' laughter, and looking with desperate composure at the cachin- natory convulsions of the audience ! But we were not condem,ned to a perpetual purgatory (a mild name for such a hot-house); for although Mr. ARNOLD has hitherto traded on his old stock since the appearance of the English Opera company at the Olympic,—and although Mr. M ORR s has given us nothing new, but alight piece, The Trolf and the Lamb, written by Young MATnEws, and in which KAAREN plays a young man and sheepish suitor (the lamb of the piece),—we have the Gokten Calf, a new petite comedy by JERROLD, at the Strand Theatre, which made up for the lack of novelty elsewhere. The title, however, misleads ; for the moral of the play is pointed, not so much against the thirst for wealth, as against the petty ambition of the rich trader to be distinguished in the world of fashion. Wealth wor- ships the idol Fashion, and his priests cozen the worshipper. It is a clever, lively, and interesting piece ; abounding with point, re- partee, and satire ; and conveying wholesome and intelligible les- sons.- The cast is effective in the principal parts,—including Mrs. WAYLETT, ABBOTT, and KEELEY, Who depicts the horror of an arrest with such gusto as to make this staple joke tell "better ash new." What was Mr. MORRIS about when he let this card remaih on the table? It is a trump; and in his hand would have brought him a rich stake. KEELEY, has, it is said, been served with an injunction to restrain him from acting at a Minor Theatre ! Per- haps this added effect to his acting.
The City Theatre, under the new Mr. JONES who has just passed a season at Drury Lane, has a rub at ST. JOHN LONG, not having the fear of damages before its eyes. Our City readefs should go and inhale in Milton Street. '
ASTLEY S is gorgeous with red, green, and gold.; and horses' heads, carved and gilded, snort at the spectators in alto relievo from between the panels of the .dress circle; while a Roman triumphal procession (really very cleverly painted) forms a frieze to the upper circle. In the horsemanship, you see DUCROW blazing with paste, at the head of his troop of riders marshalled in dazzling procession ; and last, though not least, " The High MettldRacer," with a "real race and fox-chase," concluding the entertainments that commenced with Mazeppa. Miss KELLY, who is still Mr. ARNOLD'S magnet of attradtion, has postponed for a week or two her proposed' monodramatic per- formance; for which we look with interest.
LAPORTE is making the best use of his bargain, and' seems de-
termined " to make hay while the sun shines ;". so he has en-
gaged PAGANINI to get in the harvest. Faur concerts, 'in which PAGANINI is to play, are announced' to take place at Covent Gamlen, at playhouse prices : but four may be easily TAGLIONI and MARS are also promised' for the French performances. This and the German Operas make Mr. MORRIS look grave : he has only to make his audiences merry.
Previous page
