THE1TH E A T RE S.
THE Theatres open their) doors nightly, and are nightly filled—to a certain extent. There must be aprodigious number of people at a loss
to pass away their evenings. Perhaps the public, like nature, abhors a vacuum. Or people, daily passing rows of play-bills with big letters in black, red, green, and blue, staring them in the face, conclude that there must be something worth going to see, and pay their money on speculation ; or—which is more likely—are supplied with the induce. ment of an order. Some fleeting novelty, or the reappearance of a favourite performer, gives a fillip to the playgoer's curiosity, and fur. nishes an occasion for a newspaper paragraph, and a puff of the manager's penny-trumpet. As for that high intellectual gratification which the Drama used and ought to afford, it is in the present state of the stage quite out of the question.
At Covent Garden, MACREADY has been playing some of his popular characters ; but so wretchedly supported, that were his powers greater than they are, they could hardly stand against the drawbacks of dingy scenery, dirty dresses, shabby appointments, and subordinates com- posed of the sweepings of the provincial stage. King John and Julius Cesar having been successful with Kestese's aid, are repeated in the hope that the effect will continue though the cause has ceased. YANDENHOFF was KEMBLE'S substitute in Falconbridge, and Knowius in Marc Antony : it is superfluous to add that the audience was scant and cold. KNOWLES did not even get the applause that he well de- served for the feeling which gave value to his homeliness. His per- sonation was the very reverse of KEMBLE'S; being as rough and natural as that was polished and artificial.
Mrs. Wools is just now the star in the ascendant at Drury, where she is successor to Alasninast in the Somnambula and the Maid of Artois. " Comparisons are odious." BARNETT'S opera of Fair Rosa- mond seems to have run its course the cumbrous vehicle with its tawdry trappings broke down under its own weight, and its rich burden of harmony, is doomed to be scattered abroad. Mr. FORREST has left Drury: his stage-tricks seem to have become palpable to the most uncritical. As the Fox in YEsop apostrophized the mask, so people say of Mr. FORREST....." What a pity he has no brains ! "
At the Adelphi, YATES has taken advantage of the popularity of 13oz and the Pickwick Club to get up a few scenes from those amusing papers, under the title of The Peregrinations of Pickwick. The at- tempt was as feeble and hasty as it was premature and ill.judged. However, YATES'S Pickwick is capital: he looks the character, and gives effect to the mixture of simplicity and energy in this incorporation of a good-natured twaddler. REEVE, as Sam Weller, is in his glory: he evidently relishes the part, and delivers the dialogue with so much gusto that his lapses of memory are forgiven. BUCKSTONE as Jingle.
the player and adventurer, is well enough. 0. S:41ITII as the old Miser, Mrs.sYATEs as his daughter, and HEMMING as her lover, give due effect to the serious parts. The misplaced introduction of Jim Crow was a nuisance that the audience, on the first night, very pro- perly resented. The public are getting tired of this vulgar and humourless specimen of Nigger slang. Mr. RICE had better take the hint and retire in time : he has made money enough by his antics.
BRAMAN! keeps up his prices at the St. James's ; which is distin- guished as the dearest and most elegant theatre in London. It is argued that the number of visiters would not be increased if the prices were lowered. The Postilion drives on, notwithstanding be has so few passengers.
.HULLAD'S pretty little opera, The Village Coquettes, was reproduced on Monday, for the purpose of introducing a new singer, Mr. BUR- NETT, a pupil of the Academy, and, it is said, of Caeressi, in BRA. HAM'S part of Squire Norton. This young vocalist looks well ; his voice seemed husky on the night we heard him; and both as a singer and an actor he has much to learn.
The performances of the French Company at the Lyceum are very respectable, though the whole corps is not yet mustered. One of the most attractive pieces is u new vaudeville in three acts or :eras, Pierre le Rouge, of which LAIOND is the hero. Pierre is a rustic who be- comes an actor in the Revolution, and finally a count and the pro- prietor of a chateau in his native village. The change in the manner and appearance of LAFOND, as a villager under the old regime, a Pa- risian dandy of the Republic, and a Peer of the Restoration, is com- plete, and the effect is very striking. Mademoiselle DuBouitn, as the heroine, displays great versatility, and delicate tact: the unsophisti- cated naturalness of the village maid, the bold flippancy of the citoy- enne, and the quiet self-possession and subtlety of the worldly-wise matron, are delineated with skill and verisimilitude : the character of the individual woman is preserved through rill the changes of man- ner and circumstance. The grotesque extravagances of the fashions of the Republican mra are very amusing.
We are threatened with the loss of DUVERNAY ; who, it is said, is to dance her last for the season to-night. But such is the impossibi- lity of reconciling ourselves to the deprivation, that we can't help hoping that the director of the Parisian Theatre, who claims her as his own, will, in compassion, grant a reprieve. This is the more de- sirable, since it is doubtful if the ELLSLERS will come this season : and it is certain (alas !) that we shall never see HEBERLE again. Her husband's family have come forward to prevent her reappearance on the stage, by settling an allowance on hint on that condition. Cruel kindness ! selfish generosity !
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