“It was indeed a pleasure to see, at your theatre, the play of ‘The Little Lady in Blue.’ It is long since I have so much enjoyed anything. The rightly conducted Theatre still remains to me what it always was—the home of that magic art which cheers the loneliness of life and opens the portal into an ideal world. Alas, that it is not more generally conducted for such a purpose! ‘The Little Lady’ can hardly be considered a play; but, as you have presented it, it is a charming entertainment—a whimsical, almost grotesque, portrayal of eccentric characters and incredible incidents, which are made to seem real, for the moment by the glamour of the Stage. Since the plot is so frail, I was all the more surprised and delighted that so much interest could be excited and sustained and so much pleasure diffused by the histrionic treatment of a theme so slender. You have set the play on the stage in an exquisite manner, and it is acted throughout with a scrupulous care and zeal that, in recent years, I have seldom seen equalled. It is easy to ridicule such quaint, fantastic, almost dream-like pieces. As Frederick Locker wrote:
‘We love the rare old days and rich
That poetry has painted;
We mourn that sacred age with which
We never were acquainted!’
“But they have a potent charm, a sort of mignonette and wild-thyme fragrance, a power to touch the gentler feelings and soothe the mind, and so they are precious.
“There is one blemish that should be removed—namely, the character of A Girl of Portsmouth Town: it adds nothing to the situation, and it is only a blot on the delicacy of the play.
“I am glad to know the production is prosperous: it deserves to be—and it ought to fill your theatre for months, and I hope it will.
“With kind regards,
“Faithfully yours,
“William Winter.”
The cast of “The Little Lady in Blue appended:
| Admiral Sir Anthony Addenbrooke | A. G. Andrews. |
| Anthony Addenbrooke | Jerome Patrick. |
| Captain Kent, R. N. | Frederick Graham. |
| Joe Porten | Horace Braham. |
| Baron von Loewe | Carl Sauerman. |
| John Speedwell | Charles Garry. |
| Cobbledick | George Giddens. |
| A Waiter | Adrian H. Rosley. |
| A Process Server | Harry Holiday. |
| Landlord of the Portsmouth Inn | Roland Rushton. |
| Anne Churchill | Frances Starr. |
| Miss Quick | Lucy Beaumont. |
| A Girl of Portsmouth Town | Eleanor Pendleton. |