Punch (79.1880)

268 PUNCH, OR THE LONDON CHARIVARI. [December 11, 1880.

GAIETY AND FOLLY.

Dombe y and Son was reduced to Florence, Florence appeared
as Captain Cuttle twice, and has now disappeared altogether. We
should like to see Mr. Florence in a
(vvnA.r~'~A g°°d piece ; as yet we have not had that

chance. We enjoyed his dry humour
-ilp and his artistic acting in the Mighty

Dollar, but a mighty duller piece than
Mftk that can scarcely be imagined, always

msl k||| barring his one part, which he played

X-FWg |||| As Cuttle he was very funny: he was

y-XpCXL . the well-known pictorial Cuttle down to

the ground, and so Phiz-ically he was
Cuttle, but morally he was not, unless
Americans interpret Charles Dickens’s
/§§lr ^p||| characters after a fashion which is as

1111® - n\ unintelligible to us as, we venture to

J|j||S ::;%s say, ^ would have been to the Author.

(Q pip? ' However, in this compressed American

L tinned essence of Dornbey and Son,

Captain Cuttle being all Florence,
The Cuttle Show. does not even a “little Paul'’ on the

audience. Au plaisir, Mr. Florence,
if you come with good pieces, we shall welcome your return by
a Large Majority.

There is method in some people’s madness, and there is wisdom in
Mr. Toole’s Folly, though he doesn’t show his entire stock of it all
at once. Nowadays when farce-acting is neglected, and when
farces are of very little value to anybody—being reduced to “ a mere
farce”—the notion of giving a
“laughable farce to follow,”

with the principal Comedian in Ct3iP /gljj, 0®

it is excellent. But then the

farce, should be really “laugh- mjM «. j, Wjmk

able,” there should be some- jl|gjgfS

thing in it as in Morton’s aPlj|

Grimshaw, Bagshaw, and MM vj, Mflm

Bradshaw, the immortal Box fef |l|| W iv-pxA ^ Mill

and Cox, and many others M- xx Msr ^

that take us back to the palmy jn Mm

days of farce, when people went || f 111 11 >

to “see Wright,” or “see ™ m || ^

Buckstone,” being sure of an ^

Adelphi Screamer with Wright a Flo’ of Language.

at the one place, and something

not quite so broad, but equally mirth-provoking, at the Haymarket,
with Buckstone and Compton in it.

The Bight Fantastic, put forward as “ a new and utter absurdity,”
is exactly what it describes itself to be, i.e., it is “new,” never
having been played before,—though we fancy Mr. H. J. Byron could
pretty well tell the value of each feu de mot he has put into it, and
far be it from us to blame him for evincing a sentimental affection
towards old friends who have rendered him con-
siderable service in their time,—and it is, there
is up doubt about it, “an utter absurdity,”
specially in its absurd utter-ances.

The utterly absurd ditty, ‘ ‘ The Domestic
j\\, Man,” is lugged in anyhow, and is not strikingly

comic. “ The Domestic Man's " sole merit of
MwtM ^ having invariably returned to his own house

HSpgg. for dinner, is not very unlike the refrain of the

song about the gentleman “who always came
W§ TpreL home to tea.” As the apologists for the resem-

|j||i blance of Billee Taylor (why Billee ?) in music

MM ^ and style of humour to the works of Messrs.

jiyjjf X:A Gilbert and Sullivan say, “It’s in the same

/K The intended side-splitter begins well—that

“Gills”—but no is> Mr. Toole begins well, his make-up and
Pints. * ' manner being intensely absurd ; and the idea

in itself was capital, as affording our popular
tragedian a real good chance of an eccentric-character part. But
when Mr. Samuel Slithery has once been seen, and when in five
minutes you’ve become thoroughly acquainted with all that Samuel
Slithery is likely to do, and when there are no fresh situations to
develope Slithery's peculiarities, then Slithery becomes wearisome,
and Slithery finds himself lecturing to a disappointed audience.
The puns may be pearls, and the audience may represent those ani-
mals on whom a shower of pearls is as thrown away as is the best
joke in the world told in a deaf man’s ear. Pigs, however, cannot
give their opinions on pearls, but an audience can on puns and pieces;
and if the public throng to The Light Fantastic, we shall be as ready
to admit that there must be “ something in it ” as Mr. Toole will be
to admit everybody. Then the “ Crawl,” which we had expected

so early, came so late, and, when it arrived, the “Crawl,” despite
our tragedian’s most strenuous endeavours, was undeniably slow.

The “utter absurdity” is solely re-
markable for Mr. Garden’s wonderful
make up as Signor Gassalieri, which can-
\||» vS not be properly appreciated except by

those who have previously seen him as
the youDg Country Squire, Sir Robert
Boobleton, in The Upper Crust. It is
Mv' Afm n°t °^e? that arL Actor has two good

4§i chances in one evening; and Mr. Garden

invests both parts with such distinct
individuality as shows him to be a
genuine artist.

If Mr. Toole, as Mr. Doublechick,
fWW$ /x almost exhausts himself, and the merri-

fm J|| ment of: the audience in The Upper

TM fH Crust, it is an arduous task to keep

$ JW jgj||||SpP the fun at high pressure through the last

piece, which ought therefore to be very
strong farce, with rattling dialogue, and
The Point of the Piece, laughable situations, capable of support-
ing the Actor, and not depending solely on
the popularity of an individual performer for its chance of success.
We came away with one deep regret, engendered by the careful
perusal, alas, too late! of the programme, where we found the
following information, that—

“ In the Saloon of this Theatre is on view the picture of a Chinese Lady,
painted by Mr. Walter Goodman, who has had the honour of submitting
the work to the inspection of Her Majesty the Queen, at Windsor Castle.
This is the first representation of a Chinese Lady in her native costume ever
painted by a European Artist.”

What a chance we missed ! By the way, the paragraph does not
inform us what opinion Her

Majesty was graciously gfx

pleased to express on this JfUp

work of art. Was he invited

to submit it? Or was he

smuggled, picture and all,

into Windsor Castle, and Amr 'Ig2*'

then did he happen to be in reafe/ xgpsMi

the vestibule as the Queen MpAm wfpfev

was passing through, who M ''X jiT

said, Whatsis he doing C

your Majesty,” stammered ' 1^

the Chief Butler. “Take it ; ' —-3r~

away at once,” replied the The Faux Pa’.

Queen. But this is merely

“an utter absurdity” as an hypothesis. To think, too, that every j
night there is a “First representation” at the Folly ! Why, it’s a
big advertisement in itself I And why doesn’t Mr. Toole, who is
not a bad hand at advertising, add it to his daily show— “ Ileal
Chinese Painted Lady ! Now on view! Every night. Folly Theatre.”
“First representation of a Chinese Lady in her Native Costume !!

To-night. Folly Theatre.” Then
“Mr. Toole and the Chinese Lady!
Every evening till further notice ! ”
Well, Mr. J. L. Toole, as long as
the Public run after you, your little
game in King William Street, Charing
'WWSB X Cross, will be “Folly my Leader.”

XA Bless you! Take her (the Chinese
“wJ X' Lady), and be happy ! Curtain.

~" A propos of things theatrical, the

. .. . -X Naval Demonstration at the St. James’s

^came to an end last Saturday. Wills
^ is paid off, and the rest of the crew
New Sussex Country Dance gone ou board the Good Fortune, built
—Crawley. by Mr. Coghlan.

We ve not seen Where s the Cat f
but are informed that it has neither head nor tale. Queer animal!

We beg to recommend to the notice of playgoers a capital article
on Les Mousquetaires au Convent, in the Theatre of this month,
written and signed by Mr. Clement Scott. The sooner those
objectionable picture-posters advertising Zes Mousquetaires disappear
from our hoardings the better for the Manager’s reputation, and,
ultimately, for his pocket. For ourselves, we shall welcome almost
anything at the Globe in the place of this so-called “comic opera,”
which might have been adapted so harmlessly and so amusingly, but
which is, unfortunately, so stupidly vulgar.

Comport eor Visitors to the Cattle Show.—Whatever the
fog or drizzle may be in other parts of London, at Islington there s
safe to be some very fine Wether.