... OUR CAPTIOUS CRITIC. GERMAN REED'S REDIVIVUS. ALTHOUGH our spiritual pastors and masters may themselves without offence go to the variety houses, where there are ballets, and the theatres proper-- or improper-- where there are ladies with a past-- those of their congregations who still look upon the playhouse with old-fashioned horror are nevertheless numerous enough to he considered from the ...

... . MR. AUGUSTUS DALY began on Saturday night the season of five weeks which is all that he has been able to arrange this year for the London patrons of his company, and which he has to give at a theatre other than that which bears his name. He presents only two pieces during his stay, Love on Crutches and The Countess Gucki, the latter of which is his opening produc tion. As might perhaps have ...

... . In The Honourable Member, a three-act comedy produced at the Court on Tuesday afternoon, Mr. A. W. Gattie cannot be said to have improved upon the record of his previous work, The Transgressor. He has given us a much weaker and not much more plausible romance of modern life, freely satirising the hypocrisy of a familiar type of nouve.au richc, and telling a not very realistic story of the ...

... i ii i ii ii i.^iT n i ii hi., i i i inirwi i^*_r HANSEL AND GRETEL. AMONG the few operas that have been produced during recent years Humperdinck's Hansel and Gretel occupies an honourable position, and we doubt if there is one that is more likely to command the support of the general public in the future. It contains all the essential elements of lasting popularity, and whether we regard it ...

... COA1EDY THEATRE. MR. CHARLES HAWTREY'S pretty little theatre in Panton- street, which during the recess has been subjected to a process of renovation at once useful and ornamental, was duly re-opened according to promise on Wednesday evening. For the start of his new season Air. Hawtrey had selected a play from the pen of Mr. H. V. Esmond, one of the youngest, but by no means least promising, ...

... OUR CAPTIOUS CRITIC. PEPITA. IF opéra bouffe is coming to an end, as we are so often told, it is at all events dying hard. We have seen the success of The Old Guard at the Comedy Theatre, and here again at Toole's Theatre we find Pepita doing well, with every likelihood that if the house could be secured a long run would follow. It may be safely said, I think, that opéra bouffe like most ...

... . The performance of Handel's oratorio, Judas Mamdmus, at the Crystal Palace on Saturday last, was crowned with success the total number of the admissions being 22,358. Respecting the work itself nothing remains to ho said. It has taken its place amongst our musical classics, and is likely to share with The Messiah and Israel in Egypt a lasting popularity. Whether annual performances of other ...

... . Despite the unfavourable weather of Thursday week there was a good audience at Steinway Hall for the concert given by Mile. Henriette Murkens and Mr. Arthur L'Estrange. The gentleman is a pianist. He studied for some time at Leipsic, we believe, and has appeared successfully at concerts in various parts of Germany. On the present occasion he played selections from Beethoven, Mendelssohn, ...

... . The Noble Art has been quickly promoted from a successful matinée to a more or less successful evening representation. This promotion it owes to its author Mr. Eille Norwood, who has for the time being taken the management of Terry's theatre, and who presented his piece there on Wednesday with several of the members of its original cast. Besides thus posing as author- manager, Mr. Norwood ...

... OUR CAPTIOUS CRITIC. MOSES AND SON. IT is a charming feature of the period that we are so magnificently charitable. We would rather by far be satirised ourselves than have a word said, or a thing done, to hurt the feelings of a stranger. The peer, the parson, the professor, the plutocrat, may, so long as they are Britons born, be chaffed to our heart's content. But as soon as some one is ...

... . ON Tuesday afternoon the Bohemian String Quartet party gave their second and final concert of the season at St. James's Hall, and the reputation these accomplished players have so deservedly won secured them a large and appreciative audience. Constant association has made them almost irreproachable in their ensemble effects, and no better playing of its kind can be heard. Dvorak's Quartet in ...

... our captTous critic. THE EMPIRE. OWING to the long runs of the successes and the short runs of the failures, we were obliged to take a week off from the drama. We thought, therefore, that we would look in at the Empire, and were glad of the excuse-- it is audacious to make the confession, but to men satiated with the play, the variety show is a very acceptable tonic. It used to be more so even ...