Little Red Riding Hood Or Harlequin Boy Blue

Programme for the Standard Theatre's production of: the pantomime, Little Red Riding Hood, or, Harlequin Boy Blue, Miss Muffit, the wolf, and the bears, by John Douglass, with music by Mr. W. Corri.

Williamson and Musgrove present, Little Red Riding Hood, playing at the Princess Theatre, 26th January, 1894.

Nicoll's History, which tells the story of English drama from the reopening of the theatres at the time of the Restoration right through to the end of the Victorian period, was viewed by Notes and Queries (1952) as 'a great work of exploration, a detailed guide to the untrodden acres of our dramatic history, hitherto largely ignored as barren and devoid of interest'.

The reception of Thomas Gainsborough’s Blue Boy from its origins to its appearances in contemporary visual culture reveals how its popularity was achieved and maintained by diverse audiences and in varied venues. Performative manifestations resulted in contradictory characterizations of the painted youth as an aristocrat or a "regular fellow," as masculine or feminine, or as heterosexual or gay. In private and public spaces where viewers saw the actual painting and where living and rendered replicas circulated, Gainsborough’s painting was often the centerpiece where dominant and subordinate classes met, gender identities were enacted, and sexuality was implicitly or overtly expressed.