3-085-601 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Pantomime "Cinderella," at the Garrick Theatre, 1898. London stage production. 'Mr. Oscar Barrett falls short of what his past achievements have led us to expect from him, for his pantomime, "Cinderella," is hampered by lack of stage room at the Garrick, and clogged by much music-hallism, which is not in its place. The music ranges from Mendelssohn and Weber to Lottie Collins. The fancy of the fairy tale becomes rather lost in the rollicking low comedy of the ugly sisters, played by Mr. John Le Hay and Mr. Harry Nicholls. Miss Grace Dudley, as the Cinderella, suggests the trials which would beset a real live flesh and blood Cinderella, but which are scarcely associated with fairydom. Then, though Miss Helen Bertram looks a splendid Prince, she does not enunciate clearly. Some compensation for these failings is to be found in the Baroness of Miss Kate Phillips, the Baron of Mr. Lugg, and the Fairy Godmother of Miss Cicely Richards. The limitations of the Garrick for spectacular display are so marked that the acting and the singing should have been unusually strong. As it is, the whole is composed of many mixed elements where one rather expected a fairy tale pure and simple'. From "Illustrated London News", 1898.