THE THEATRES.
THOSE to whom the realities of this " working-day-world" are over- burdensome, may go to the Adelphi, and be moonstruck for an hour or two, by a spectacle as brilliant and a drama as impos- sible as ever dazzled the sight and puzzled the sense of play-goer. Celestia, or the World in the Moon, is the title of this " Chinese, ro- mantic, operatic, and magical ballet-burletta spectacle," as the bills epithetically describe it. The terrestrial portion of the scene is laid in the " Celestial Empire," in order that the fancy may have a 'vantage- ground of remoteness from which to wing her flight with the characters to the " land of Luna." Nourjehan, a Chinese Endymion-not a shepherd, but a mandarin of the yellow button-is taken with a lunatic love-sickness for a nymph of the moon, named Celestia, who had become enamoured of hem ; and by the aid of a magician, to whoa nothing seems difficult, he is transported on a cloudy car along the railroad of a moonbeam to the planet where dwells the mistress of his heart. Thither also is transported, by a band of moon-calves, Kiang Hong, his faithful follower. They are welcomed and entertained right royally by the Man in the Moon, who " holds sovereign sway and masterdom" over the whole lunar globe. So social is the nature of "his lunacy," that he is desirous of exchanging amicable relationship with his imperial sublunary brother of China; and accordingly despatches Kiang Hong on an embassy to Pekin ; having first invested him with lunarian honours in the shape of a scarlet robe and hood, with a disk that gives to the jolly face of Jolts REEVE an amplitude and rubicun- dity that a sign-painter might covet for a sun. The espousals of the lover and his lunarian inamorata are, however, prevented by the heir- apparent to the lunar empire, who is in love with Celestia himself, and intrigues to get the mortal banished from the moon : the hero of this marvellous adventure, therefore, descends to earth, and flings him- self at the little feet of a Chinese heiress, as though he had but awoke from a dream. But to show how far the Lunarians are above bearing malice, the whole court of his lunatic majesty, with the constellations and the signs of the zodiac in their train, give splendour to the nuptials of the terrestrial couple. The Lunarians only differ from mortals in the silvery splendour of their attire : this is a defect in the imagination of the author. A trio of moon-calves, personated by Messrs. BROWN, KING, and GIBSO'N..... with whose names we are as familiar as with the three truant school- boys in the spelling-book, Brown, Jones, and Robinson-hardly form an exception, for they only differ in having grotesque phizzes of silver, and tresses of the same metal. They are afterwards disguised as Chinese slaves, in compliment to the mundane visiters, and dance a comic pas de trois, whose drollest movement is that where they sleek their long mustachios with the action of a cobler drawing out his stitches. The "grand lunar hall," with the ballet, is a splendid scene; which loses nothing of its brilliancy even by an eclipse of the moon, for to the pale brightness of lunar day succeeds the lurid light of what we sup- pose to be lunarian darkness. But this is surpassed by the bower of Celestia, and "retreat of the Nymphs," in which the walls and floor seem made of "moon mirror," reflecting the forms of the Nymphs as they dance. It would be a great improvement, however, if the termi- nations of the mirrors were hidden by the fanciful wreathings of the bower. In this scene, Mrs. HoNEr and Miss DALY execute a very beautiful dance. Miss DALY'S pantomime is very graceful and expres. sive. The last scene of "the aerial triumph," and the "assemblage of the constellations," is the crowning splendour ; and its effect is greatly heightened by one of those preternatural effusions of light, which give a celestial radiance to the superb tableaux vivan.s that terminate each act. The terrestrial scenes too are vividly painted; though the view of Pekin is only pale blue, and not moonlit. It is strange that we get no peep at Luna from the earth. When REEVE serenades her in a comic invocation to " Badroulbadour"-the Chinese poetical cognomen of the moon-he casts his eyes to one of the wings. His action in the Chinese dance that accompanies this song, and squatting down after it, are very droll. The vocal compositions, by RODWELL, are agreeable ; and the melt,- dram 'tic music is superior to the generality of these accompaniments. Miss LAND, though her voice is not pleasing, sings with cleverness. We felt the loss of Mrs. KEELEY, who, we are sorry to hear, is absent thro tgh illness. YATES merits the praise of his unceasing exertion and liberal ex- pen liture ; and his extraordinary success is the most satisfactory proof of public approbation. Pompeii is now played as a second piece; and two more gorgeous spectacles than are presented nightly at the Adelphi, have never been brought on the stage.
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