The singers voted it quite indispensable. It was much ridiculed, of
course, by the general public. It was even made the special subject of
burlesque on a rival stage. A century ago the imbecility was indulged
in of playing "The Beggar's Opera" with "the characters reversed," as
it was called; that is to say, the female characters were assumed by
the actors, the male by the actresses. This was at the Haymarket
Theatre, under George Colman's management. The foolish proceeding won
prodigious applause. A prologue or preliminary act in three scenes was
written for the occasion. The fun of this introduction seems now gross
and flat enough. Towards the conclusion of it, we read, a
stage-carpenter raised his head through a trap in the centre of the
stage. He was greeted with a roar of laughter from the gallery. The
prompter appears on the scene and demands of the carpenter what he
means by opening the trap? The carpenter explains that he designs to
prompt the performers after the fashion of the Opera House on the
other side of the Haymarket. "Psha!" cries the prompter, "none of your
Italian tricks with me! Shut up the trap again! I shall prompt in my
old place; for we won't do all they do on the other side of the way
till they can do all we do on ours.
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