The amiouncement of a burlesque by the Amateur Dramatic Club 1 draw an overflowing house, and the Lyceum. has seldom been fuller it was on Friday evening, when the piece chosen for performance was Ah Baba and the Forty Thieves. The programme assured us that no expense lad been spared, of either money or brains, to make the entertainment a success, and faking it all in all we think this magnificent vaunt was justified by events, The whole thing was successful in a very high degree, and will long be remembered as one of the best burlesques ever given in Shanghi Tt is unnecessary that we should any extended notice of the plot. Burlesqu can scarcely be said to have any plot, and it they do chance to have one it is oon lost sight of in the running fire of jokes and raillery. We shall therefore confine ourselves exclusively to noticing the efforts of the actors, the scene-painters, and the song-writers, all of whom contribute! so largely to the general enjoyment. It may only too often be charged against burlesques that they degenerate into buffoonery.. This was certainly not true of Ah Baba as played by our amateurs on Friday, and no member of the company did more to infuse it with an air of retinement and polished drollery than Mr. Eyre, who, as a representative of the ultra'esthetic school, is entitled beyond all question to the palm of the evening. His costume of sunflowers, lilies, and peacocks-featl was in the happiest taste, and his poses were admirably conceived. There can be no doubt that this gentleman is the greatest acquisition the has had for a long time, and he could scarcely appear to better advantage than in the i on Friday. given. The second act, which, as it was not included the book of the words, we presume to have been composed at the last moment, was one of the most effective of the evening ant the same may be said of his solo in the first scene, with the refrain—Oh, I like o dress of green or peacock blue, love to scent faint lilies in the air Or with a dainty daffodil, 80 precious and too too, My thoughts apou the infinite to share, The second place of honour is justly due to Mr. Jules Mumm, without whom, indeed, we can scarcely imagine a burlesque complete. His entry upon the stage was comic in the extreme, and if some of his gestures wore a little bit too prouoncés it was after all a good fault, 'Dhis gentleman has two undeniable merits he never misses a point, and every word by says can be distinctly heard, His byplay, too, was capital, especially when he had to do with the donkey—alias the Vicar of Bray,' another most meritorious neter, by the way, who seems to have been wonderfully well trained, and whose performances quite brought down the house. It is not often that an animal is, made to appear upon the stage with such ex-lent results. Me. Mum's songs, topical and otherwise, were well given, and excited immense laughter and applause. Mr. Stew-also deserving of great was uniformly humor-ons, and he played up' to Me. Mumm and Me. © Eyre most satisfactorily in all the scones where they were together. A great deal depended upon the grouping of the characters, and nothing could have been more effective than the Robbers' Cave, with the excellent drilling of the men, their brilliant costumes, and the time they kept to the music—a situation to which arear assistance was given by the byplay of Mr. Stewboy. In choruses, however, our amateurs are and always have been a little They have a bright example before them in the Concordia Liedertafel, but hitherto at any rate have not proved them-solves able to compete with their German confreres in the performance of concerted vocal pieces. Hassarac, too, (Mr. P. Congo, who was also stage-manager), was a thoroughly well-played part, His get-up was most artistic, and his songs well given while a cordial word of praise is due to Messrs. Valiant, Wrongman, and Bailiff, for their excellent fooling in the parts of Mirza, Hassan, and Badoura respectively. The duott betwoon Mirza and Hassan, very prettily sung in harmony, and enlivened with local allusions, was certainly one of the best things of the burlesque, while the trio There's nothing like a rattling burst" was capitally acted as well as sung. "Pheir dancing was one of the gems of the evening; we have seldom anything more graceful or more purely comic. Mr, Titus Oates made as much as he could of the somewhat colourless part of Cassim, and gave his points, such as they were, with spirit and effect. The ladies were represented by Miss Fitzgoorge (Oreobrand)
is Wynne (Cogia Baba) Miss Nell Ray (Zaide) and Morgiana (Miss Dora Monday),—none. of whom unfortunately had very leading parts. The heroine we suppose forgians, whose appearance was the signal for great laughter and applause, We think, however, that we have soon Miss Monday rather. more happily cast; hor memory, too, seemed to fail her somewhat in one dialogue, which being very topical we may suppose to have been interpolated short time before the rising of the our-tain. Miles Wynne and Ray made very handsome representatives of their respoc+ tive characters, while Miss Fitzgoorge was most beautiful and dazzling in her silvery costume as the fairy, The mise-en-scene was extremely effective, and very creditable to the artist. The ballroom in ti last act, with its vista of ly arches and variety of colo dresses, was warmly applauded; as was also the forest+ scone, upon which the curtain rose, The Towa Band played well, and not nosey 20 Joud as usual, during the intervals; Signor Beato accompanied the songs on the piano, and Mr. Moreishus on the violin; and the musical arrangements generally were good, The interpolations in the burlesque were so frequent and so happily-introduced that the prauing-knife might have been employed still more freely in the original text, © The pisco was almost too long and parts of the second act dragged a little. On the whole, however, the por formance was a genuine success, and we congratulate the A. D, O, upon their laurels, Indeed, when we consider the time, trouble, and expense to which the Club has been put in the production of this piece, it certainly seems a great pity that it should be all wasted on a single night, and we are glad to hoarthatthe Committee have decided on giving a repetition of it on Tuesday next, at popular prices. The experiment has been tried before, and the result has, in every instance, we believe, fully justified it, A delightful evening would be afforded to many who were not present on Friday night, and a handsome addition secured to the coffers of the A. D. 0. We append the following songs, as among the most successful of the evening.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.