“Miss Mary Anderson has won such favor from audiences at the Lyceum, that anything she did would attract interest and curiosity.  Galatea, in Mr. W.S.  Gilbert’s mythological comedy, ‘Pygmalion and Galatea,’ has, moreover, been spoken of as one of the actress’ chief successes, and a crowded house on Saturday evening was the result of the announcement of its revival.  An ideal Galatea could scarcely be realized, for there should be in the triumph of the sculptor’s art, endowed by the gods with life, a supernatural grace and beauty.  The singular picturesqueness of Miss Anderson’s poses and gestures, the consequences of careful study of the best sculpture, has been noted in all that she has done, and this quality fits her peculiarly for the part of the vivified statue.  In this respect it is little to say that Galatea has never before been represented with so near an approach to perfection.”

Daily News, 10th December, 1883.

“The part of Galatea, in which Miss Anderson made her first appearance in England at the Lyceum Theater on Saturday evening, enables this delightful actress to exhibit in her fullest charms the exquisite grace of form and the simple elegance of gesture and movement by virtue of which she stands wholly without a rival on the stage.  Whether in the alcove, where she is first discovered motionless upon the pedestal, or when miraculously endued with life, she moves, a beautiful yet discordant element in the Athenian sculptor’s household.  The statuesque outline and the perfect harmony between the figure of the actress and her surroundings, were striking enough to draw more than once from the crowded theater, otherwise hushed and attentive, an audible expression of pleasure.  Rarely, indeed, can an attempt to satisfy by actual bodily presentment the ideal of a poetical legend have approached so nearly to absolute perfection.”

The Morning Post, 10th December, 1883.

“‘Pygmalion and Galatea,’ a play in which Miss Mary Anderson is said to have scored her most generally accepted success in her own country, has now taken at the Lyceum the place of ‘The Lady of Lyons,’ a drama certainly not well fitted to the young actress’ capabilities.  Mr. Gilbert’s well-known fairy comedy is in many respects exactly suited to the display of Miss Anderson’s special merits.  Its heroine is a statue, and a very beautiful simulation of chiseled marble was sure to be achieved by a lady of Miss Anderson’s personal advantages, and of her approved skill in artistic posing.  Moreover, the sub-acid spirit of the piece rarely allows its sentiment to go very deep, and it is in the expression—­perhaps, we should write the experience—­of really earnest emotion, that Miss Anderson’s chief deficiency lies.  Galatea is moreover by no means the strongest acting part in the comedy, affording few of the opportunities for the exhibition of passion, which fall to the lot of the heart-broken and indignant wife, Cynisca.  Although in 1871, on the original