One result of this invasion of pantomime by the music-hall element is the popularity of the fairy play, to which hundreds of parents take their children now in preference to the older form of Christmas entertainment. This year off this description, by far the most notable of which is Mr. J. M. Barne's "Peter Pan, or the Boy who Wouldn't Grow Up," which was produced at the Dake of York's Theatre on Tuesday. Itis a really charming creation, full of pretty and humorous fancy, the germ of which is to be found in the authors story of "The Little White Bird." A question has been raised whether children can be really as delighted by it as can geown-up people, for it treats the heroes of childhood—pirates, Red Indians, and fsiries—in-a spirit of good-humoured burlesque which could hardly be appreciated and which some thought might be resented by young people; but those who have taken the trouble to test the matter find that even very young children njoy it thoroughly, for though they detect the underlying element of satire it does not prevent them from entering thoroughly into the spirit of the fairy romance. The piece is prettily mounted and admirably acted by refined. performers; and here it has an immense advantage over most of the pantomimes. Miss Nina Boucicault has scored a triumph in the part of Peter Pan; in the cast are Mr. Gerald Clu Maurier and Miss Dorothea Baird. butterflies in Fairyland Another spectacle which will d thousands of. children for many weeks to come has been produced at the: Hippodrome under the title of " Butter flies in Fairyland." It is purely a spectacle, with " musical accompaniment, for there is not x word spoken in it from beginning to and. It is in effect an ultra-glorious transformation scene placed not merely on the stage but in the iddio of thecirous arcus. Groupe of living statuary are seen on columns of water in the midst of splashing fountains' constantly changing. in hues, the forms mysteriously changing from demons to fairy gnomes, from gnomes to owls, and from owls to nympha. The fountains; and all the surroundings are constantly changing form and colour, and finally there is a wonderful serial ballet of butterfly: fairies. How all the effects are produced it would be hard to-say, for evidently a. combination of ingenious devices are employed, including doubtless the play of optical lanterns on the water and spray but it is undoubtedly a most beautiful spectacle of a kind, the like of which has never been seen before, and one can well believe the announcement of the manage-mont that it has cost ten thousand pounds to produce.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.