3-074-980 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Pantomime of "Cinderella" at Her Majesty's Theatre, 1890. London stage production featuring men in drag. 'The "Cinderella", arranged by Mr. Charles Harris, with songs written by Mr. Clement Scott and music by Messrs. Alfred Cellier, Edward Solomon, Henry Leslie, and others, is an effective version of that old story which never fails to be pleasing. The heroine is represented by Miss Minnie Palmer, who sings well; but the parts of her two proud and disagreeable sisters, as no women could or would bear such ugly characters, are taken by Mr. C. Coborn and Mr. J. Le Hay. Other characters, those of Baron Brokestone and Scroogins, are for the first time introduced to lengthen and complicate the original plot. There is a pretty fairy ballet scene called "Insect Island," in which every dancer wears an imitation of the wings of a butterfly, a beetle, a wasp, or some other insect. The arrival of distinguished foreign guests, including the Shah, in carriages drawn by Shetland ponies, at the Palace gates, has also a good effect; and there is an exciting street scene with a fire'. From "Illustrated London News", 1890.