[5] The New York Times, reviewing the 1901 premiere, called the piece "really a charming and beautiful thing, of a simple, reminiscent kind, with capital music by Walter Slaughter and fine scenery.... Ellaline Terriss acts with exquisite simplicity ... while Hicks himself bears a large share of the work with his accustomed energy and confidence.
It praised the cast, particularly Phyllis Black as Bluebell, Geoffrey Saville as Dickie, George Zucco as the Reigning King, and the children's chorus.
[7] Gladys Cooper, Jessie Matthews, Charles Hawtrey and many other actors began their careers as children in the piece.
Mr. Joplin and his eccentric servants, Will and Won't, find Bluebell in the Strand, among her friends, a group of flower girls and boot blacks.
In a garret in Drury Lane, Bluebell's sisters and her faithful black cat, Peter, are preparing for Christmas.
Bluebell arrives and reads to her sisters the story of the rich but miserly Sleepy King, who has been condemned to sleep until he should be awakened by a good girl with the peal of bells.
Bluebell and Peter soon meet two schoolboys, Blib and Blob, who are to escort them from the Palace to the dungeon where the Sleepy King is being held prisoner.
They then meet the Fairy Waterlilly, who leads them through creepy bogs and thickets to the Enchanted Glade, where they find the Magic Oak, which grows above the Sleepy King's dungeon.
Bluebell sadly refuses, as the Christmas bells chime, because she must return to her two sisters, so she flees back to the garret.