Review from The Times  
Thursday, March 6, 1873.

COURT THEATRE

In the history of Frederick the Great it is recorded that on the death of his father, Frederick William, there was a general expectation among his associates that an unprecedented state of things was close at hand. But when the new King showed himself in public for the first time with the traditional three-cornered hat on his head and the traditional cane in his hand there was a general murmur, and people said to each other “How very like the old Fritz the young Fritz is!”
On reading the announcement that a burlesque version of the Wicked World, written by Messrs. T. Tomline and Gilbert à Beckett, and entitled the Happy Land, was to be produced at the Court Theatre, one was led to suppose that the great dramatic satirist of the day, Mr. W. S. Gilbert, was himself about to be severely satirized by two authors, one entirely unknown to fame. But when the Happy Land is seen, when its pointed dialogue has been carefully followed, and its general tone observed, the exclamation suggests itself, “How very like Mr. Gilbert Messrs. Tomline and à Beckett are!” Perhaps it is on account of this close resemblance that Mr. Gilbert and Mr. Buckstone, as the bill informs us, both specially sanction the production of the piece.

The outline of the plot is precisely the same as in the Wicked World. Queen Selene, magnificently represented by Miss Helen Barry, who played the Queen of the Amazons in Babil and Bijou at Covent Garden, reigns over a fairy country; Ethais (Mr. W. H. Fisher), Phyllon (Mr. W. J. Hill), and Lutin (Mr. E Righton), visit the earth, and their places are filled by mortal counterparts, who at first fascinate and afterwards disgust Selene and her subjects. It is the same story over again; but whereas the satire in the older piece is of the social kind, that of the newer one is solely political, being pointedly, unreservedly, and continuously directed against the recent measures of the present Government. Each of the three counterparts has “Right Honourable” attached to his name, and the general charge of parsimony and incompetency is brought against them in every shape, the satire reaching its height when the three Privy Councillors, attempting to establish a Government in the Happy Land bestow offices on those fairies who are most incapable of performing the duties attached to them. Thus one of them, having innocently asked, “What is a ship?” is of that very account, and without a minute’s hesitation, made Chief Lord of the Admiralty.

The dialogue is smart throughout, but what is, perhaps, most remarkable in the performance is the costume. The three Privy Councillors are so dressed as to become, so far as the dressers art can make them, complete portraits of three noted members of the Cabinet, and in one case the portraiture is quite as successful as in any of the cartoons of Punch.
The recent revival of Jack Sheppard at the Queen’s under the name of Old London, mystified us not a little as to the principles by which the action of the Lord Chamberlain is regulated, and here we have one puzzle more. Some weeks ago, we understand, a member of the Cabinet was mentioned by name in the course of a burlesque, in a very harmless manner, and an intimation was sent that the offence must not be repeated. Now this particular Minister and two others, though not indeed named, are placed unmistakably before the public eye, and stand on the boards almost in propriâ persona, as targets for as many arrows as the hostile satirist chooses to discharge. In Congreve’s Love for Love, Valentine mourns over the loss of that licence which notoriously prevailed on the earlier Athenian stage. Had he seen the Happy Land he might have dried his eyes. Cleon was never more openly brought forward by Aristophanes than are the three “Right Honourables” by Messrs. Tomline and à Beckett.

The success of the piece, which is capitally performed, is undoubted, some of the speeches being applauded with a party vehemence, which makes it by no means improbable that in the event of a “long run” it may afford occasion for demonstrations and counter demonstrations like those that were so loud in the Alhambra at the commencement of the Franco-German War.

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