April 2, 1892.
"'TIS MERRY IN HALL."
[Illustration: "Knock'd 'em!"]
"What's in an 'at without an 'ed?" DISTAFFINA DE COCKAIGNE was wont
to inquire, and "what's an 'all" (of Music like the London Pavilion)
"without a NED" in the shape of Mr. EDWARD SWANBOROUGH, the
all-knowing yet ever-green Acting Manager at this place of
entertainment, who possessing the secret of perpetual youth in all the
glory of ever-resplendent hat and ever-dazzling shirt-front, ushers
us into the Stalls in time to hear the best part of an excellent
all-round show. It is sad to think that, probably as we were disputing
with the cabman, the celebrated Miss BOOM-TE-RÉ-SA, alias LOTTIE
COLLINS, Serio-Comic and Dancer, was "booming" and "teraying" before
the eyes of a delighted audience. Strange that we should not yet
have heard the great original. But as she is not (so to adapt a line
from the "_Last Rose of Summer_") "left booming alone," we have
not escaped hearing several of her male and female imitators who,
by her kind permission and that of her publishers, trade on her
present exceptional success. However, when we entered the Stalls,
Miss BOOM-TE-RÉ-SA had disappeared, and somebody with a song had
"intervened"--a mode of proceeding not necessarily limited to the
Queen's Proctor--before the object of our visit walked on to the
stage, and when he did come a pretty object he was too, seeing that
it was Mr. ALBERT CHEVALIER, the unequalled and inimitable Comedian
of the Costermongers. He is a thorough artist in this particular
line, and no indifferent one in others; but his Coster ballads are
artistically first rate. The fashion of calling English singers by
Italian names is on the wane, otherwise Mr. ALBERT CHEVALIER, of
French extraction, would find an excellent Italian alias, closely
associated with the operatic and musical professions, and most
appropriate to the line he has adopted, in the name of "SIGNOR COSTA."
The melody of Mr. CHEVALIER's "_Coster's Serenade_," of which, I
rather think, he is the composer as well as librettist, is as charming
as it is strikingly original. After the _Chevalier sans peur et sans
approche_ had retired, clever and sprightly Miss JENNY HILL gave as
a taste of lodging-house-keeperism, following whom came the Two MACS
belabouring each other in their old hopelessly idiotic, but always
utterly irresistible style; and then Lieutenant W. COLE--King COLE
we "crowned him long ago"--gave his ventriloquial entertainment, who,
with his troop of talking dolls, should have his address at Dollis
Hill. There were many "turns" yet to follow when we left, at a
comparatively early hour; "and so," to quote old PEPYS, "home with
much content."
* * * * *
"TO HAVE AND TO HOLD."
Big promises and Party scoldings
Won't cure "Small Savings" by "Small Holdings."
* * * * *