"Once upon a time there were two Kings."
Whatever the piece may be, it is always a pleasure to see how thoroughly the old hands at the Savoy enter into "the fun of the thing," and, as in the case of Miss Jessie Bond and Mr. Rutland Barrington, absolutely carry the audience with them by sheer exuberance of spirits.
Mr. Rutland Barrington possesses a ready wit and keen appreciation of humour; and, as this is true also of Miss Jessie Bond, the couple, being thoroughly in their element with such parts as The Gondoliers provide for them, legitimately graft their own fun on the plentiful stock already supplied by the author, and are literally the life and soul of the piece.
On the night I was there a Miss Norah Phyllis took Miss Ulmar's part of Gianetta, and played it, at short notice, admirably. She struck me as bearing a marked facial resemblance to Miss Fortesque, and is a decided acquisition. Mr. Denny, as the Grand Inquisitor (a part that recalls the Lord High Chancellor of the ex-Savoyard, George Grossmith, now entertaining "on his own hook"), doesn't seem to be a born Savoyard, non nascitur and non fit at present. Good he is, of course, but there's no spontaneity about him. However, for an eccentric comedian merely to do exactly what he is told, and nothing more, yet to do that, little or much, well, is a performance that would meet with Hamlet's approbation, and Mr. Gilbert's. Mr. Frank Wyatt, as "the new boy" at the Savoy School, doesn't, as yet, seem quite happy; but it cannot be expected that he should feel "quite at home," when he has only recently arrived at a new school.
Miss Brandram is a thorough Savoyard; nihil tetigit quod non ornavit, and her embroidery of a part which it is fair to suppose was written to suit her, is done in her own quaint and quiet fashion.
Rutland Pooh-Bah-rington, after signing his re-engagement, takes his Bond, and sings, "Again we come to the Savoy."
A fantastically and humorous peculiarly Gilbertian idea is the comparison between a visit to the dentist's, and an interview with the questioners by the rack, suggested by the Grand Inquisitor Don Alhambra who says that the nurse is waiting in the torture-chamber, but that there is no hurry for him to go and examine her, as she is all right and "has all the illustrated papers."
George Grossmith on his own Hook.