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[Illustration: An "Up to Date" Young Man.]
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"'TWAS IN TRAFALGAR"'S THEATRE.
As in the case of the old farcical play _The Three Hunchbacks_, on
which an _opéra bouffe_ was founded, and of all plays ancient and
modern depending for their success on the exact physical resemblance
existing between three distinct persons, directly the audience
has grasped the fact, they enter heartily into the humour of the
complications. Now, in _Tom, Dick and Harry_, the audience, having
once mastered and allowed the given thesis, viz., that Mr. CHARLES
HAWTREY, Mr. ERNEST PERCY, and Mr. ARTHUR PLAYFAIR are so exactly
alike that even their own wives and sweethearts are unable to
distinguish one _Antipholus_ from another _Antipholus_, and both or
either from a third _Antipholus_, then the fun of the confusion gains
upon them, and Mrs. R. PACHECO'S three-act farce at the Trafalgar
Square Theatre gives the spectators fits, which assume the proportion
of convulsions of laughter absolutely dangerous to the safety of
various individuals. For this deponent can testify to the effect of
the fun of the farce on a small boy in a box, who literally jumped
with joy--quite a little Jack-in-the-Box--and in his excitement would
have precipitated himself into the stalls, but for the united energies
of the family party, which retained him amongst them by sheer force.
He had been less wildly enthusiastic about _Pickwick_, owing, perhaps,
to the restraining appearance of _Tommy Bardell_, whose presence on
the stage the Boy in the Box might, perhaps, have been inclined to
view with disfavour, though giving a rapturous welcome to Miss JESSIE
BOND'S charming impersonation of _Mrs. Bardell_, to Mr. LITTLE'S
life-like _Pickwick_, and to Mr. CHARLES HAWTREY'S sentimental but
sulky _Baker_. However he made up for any show of envy towards _Tommy_
by cordially applauding Mr. EDWARD SOLOMON's catching melodies, which
are not less humourously than skilfully orchestrated; and his (I am
still speaking of the Boy in the Box) genuine applause throughout the
evening quite led that of the house, and was a real treat to witness,
culminating as it did in a volcanic eruption of irrepressible joy at
the conclusion of the second act of _Tom, Dick and Harry_. Miss VANE
FEATHERSTON, the Misses ESMOND and WILLIAMS, the ever-clever Miss
SOPHIE LARKIN, in a difficult part, Mr. W. F. HAWTREY as _Dr. Wagner_,
the Specialist--specially good--and Mr. JOHN BEAUCHAMP, who quite
revives the otherwise worn-out peppery stage-Indian General of old
Haymarket and Adelphi farces,--all do their very best, and, with Mr.
C. HAWTREY,--make the piece what it is, a thorough-going success. At
least such is the opinion of