Event Comment: [The afterpiece] An
Arabian Night's Entertainment produc'd in two parts with New Scenes, Habits, Music & Decorations. Full Prices. Went off with great applause (
Cross). It is hop'd no Gentlemen will take it ill that they cannot possibly be admitted behind the Scenes or into the Orchestra, the Entertainment depending chiefly upon the Machinery and Music. [Repeated on all
Genii Bills this season.] This new entertainment...hath fully decided the controversy and fix'd the superiority of Pantomime to
Drury Lane Theatre, as it had before had of almost everything else;...for
beauty of scenery, elegance of dress, propriety of music, and regularity of designs, it exceeds all the boasted grandeur of
Harlequin Sorcerer, or of any I have seen either separate or collective. The last scene beggars all description; the most romantic Eastern account of sumptuous palaces are but faint to this display of
beauty, this glow of light, this profusion of glittering gems, which adorn the whole, and much exceeds all expectations. I rejoice and congratulate myself that I am not of that modern way of thinking (or rather seeming to think) that nothing can deserve the epithet good from their superior taste, but while I am pleased will own it, and not endeavor to gain the character of a critick, ar the expense of violation of my senses (
Scourge No. 14, quoted in the
Gentleman's Magazine, Dec. 1752, p. 582). Receipts: #200 (Cross)