Everything about Henry Lytton totally explained
Sir Henry Lytton (
3 January 1865 –
15 August 1936) was an English actor and singer who was the leading exponent of the comic
baritone roles in
Gilbert and Sullivan operas in the early part of the twentieth century. His career in these
Savoy operas with the
D'Oyly Carte Opera Company spanned 50 years, and he's the only person ever
knighted for achievements as a Gilbert and Sullivan performer. Lytton also played in a number of
Edwardian musical comedies around the turn of the century. He was married to fellow D'Oyly Carte artiste
Louie Henri.
Life and career
Lytton was born
Henry Alfred Jones in
London, the son of Henry Jones, a jeweller, and Martha Lavinia Harris. In school he took part in amateur theatricals and boxing. He wrote that he was also a boy soloist in the choir of St. Philip's Church,
Kensington, London. Biographer Brian Jones concludes that Lytton tells a number of untruths about his teenage years and early career in his 1922 memoir,
Secrets of a Savoyard. In fact, at the age of fourteen Lytton left school and was apprenticed to the young artist William Henry Hamilton Trood to study painting and sculpture around 1880. Lytton's father hoped that he'd outgrow his interest in the theatre. Lytton probably met his future wife, Louisa Webber, later known on stage as
Louie Henri, at St. Philip's.
Early career
In 1879, Henri had been engaged by
Florence St. John's
operetta company but left to help Lytton begin his acting career. In 1881, they joined the company at Philharmonic Theatre,
Islington in several plays, including
The Obstinate Bretons and
The Shaughraun by
Dion Boucicault, and then, with
Kate Santley, played at the
Royalty Theatre. There they appeared in
Ixion, or the Man at the Wheel by
F. C. Burnand, but the theatre closed soon afterwards. Henri rejoined St. John's company, where she played in several operettas and had a small role in
Olivette at the
Avenue Theatre. She then rejoined Santley's company in 1883, but Lytton was out of acting work all this time and was forced to take a variety of odd jobs. Henri then played in the lavish Christmas pantomime of
Cinderella at the
Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. They married in early 1884, both aged 19, at St. Mary Abbot's Church,
Kensington. Lytton was estranged from his father, who disapproved of his profession and his bride's, and neither family attended the ceremony.
Henri left the Drury Lane to join the
D'Oyly Carte Opera Company to play the small role of Ada in the first provincial tour of Gilbert and Sullivan's
Princess Ida, beginning in February 1884, in which
Courtice Pounds played Hilarion and
Fred Billington played Hildebrand. She obtained an audition for Lytton, claiming that he was her brother, and he was also engaged in the chorus and small parts, and immediately as the understudy for the role of King Gama in
Princess Ida.
After this, they joined with other out-of-work actors and travelled from town to town in
Surrey for three months, performing a drama called
All of Her, a comedy entitled
Masters and Servants, and an operetta,
Tom Tug the Waterman. The plays were augmented by songs and dances. The income provided by this work wasn't adequate, and the struggling young actors experienced hunger. In the fall of 1885, Lytton and Henri joined a D'Oyly Carte tour, playing in
Trial by Jury (with Henri as the Plaintiff),
The Sorcerer,
Patience and
The Pirates of Penzance. The two then played in the Christmas pantomime of
Cinderella at the Theatre Royal, Manchester. In the summer of 1886, Lytton and Henri joined the chorus of
Erminie and
The Lily of Leoville by
Ivan Caryll and
Clement Scott, at the
Comedy Theatre, and then toured in
Erminie into the fall of that year. Whenever out of work, Lytton took more odd jobs, putting his artist training to use part of the time by painting decorative plaques. At the end of the year, Lytton was engaged in the chorus of
The Mikado, which was nearing the end of its original run at the
Savoy Theatre.
Principal comedian on tour: 1887 to 1897
In 1887, Eric Lewis, who had been understudying
George Grossmith in the comic "patter" roles, resigned from the company in frustration that Grossmith had rarely taken ill in three years. Lytton, luckily in the right place at the right time, giving Lytton, at the age of 22, the chance to appear as Robin Oakapple for more than two weeks in the original run of
Ruddigore. When Grossmith returned, Lytton returned to the chorus in
Ruddigore. After his success at the Savoy, Lytton was sent on tour in April 1887 playing Robin and earning good notices. Early in his career, Lytton was credited on stage as "H. A. Henri" (to match Louie Henri's stage name), but on this 1887 tour, he changed his stage name to H. A. Lytton at the suggestion of W. S. Gilbert, in memory of Gilbert's old friend Marie Litton and the author-playwright-politician
Edward Bulwer-Lytton.
Lytton continued to serve almost continuously in D'Oyly Carte touring companies as principal comedian until 1897. On tour, by the end of 1888, Lytton had played several more of the Gilbert and Sullivan principal comic roles. In addition to Robin, he began to play Ko-Ko in
The Mikado, Major-General Stanley in
Pirates, Sir Joseph Porter in
H.M.S. Pinafore, and Jack Point the jester in
The Yeomen of the Guard, which became his favourite role. Unlike Grossmith, who gave the opera a comic ending, Lytton's Jack Point, following the example of
George Thorne (another D'Oyly Carte touring artist), died of a broken heart at the end. Carte and Gilbert blessed the departure from Grossmith's interpretation. In subsequent years, he portrayed these and the other principal comic Gilbert and Sullivan roles played by the the D'Oyly Carte touring companies in which he played.
In 1890, Lytton was called to
New York City along with other D'Oyly Carte principals, to bolster the weak cast of the original New York production of
The Gondoliers as the Duke of Plaza-Toro. Thereafter, he played the Rev. William Barlow in
The Vicar of Bray, the McCrankie in
Haddon Hall, and Captain Flapper in
Billee Taylor.
Return to London: 1897 to 1908
Lytton was called to the Savoy Theatre in 1897 to play King Ferdinand in a new piece mounted by the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company,
His Majesty, replacing
George Grossmith, who had returned to the stage after many years, only to fail in the role.
Walter Passmore had taken over the principal comedian parts in the Gilbert and Sullivan operas at the
Savoy Theatre when Grossmith retired. Therefore, when he returned to the Savoy, over the next half dozen years, Lytton played other baritone roles in the Gilbert and Sullivan revivals (except that he did play the Major General in
The Pirates of Penzance in 1990). These included Wilfred Shadbolt in
Yeomen, Giuseppe in
The Gondoliers, the Learned Judge in
Trial, Dr. Daly in
The Sorcerer, Captain Corcoran in
Pinafore, Archibald Grosvenor in
Patience, and Strephon in
Iolanthe.
Lytton was stung financially by two attempts at theatrical management. He and some partners leased the
Criterion Theatre in 1899 to produce
The Wild Rabbit, a farce by
George Arliss, who later became a famous actor in America. The production opened during a heat wave and played for only three weeks in London (after more successful tryouts out of town), sustaining over £1,000 in losses, a serious loss for Lytton this early in his career. Later, Lytton bailed out some friends who had run out of money while producing a tour of
Melnotte, an operatic version of the comedy,
The Lady of Lyons. This also lost money.
Beginning in 1903, Lytton took a four year break from D'Oyly Carte, starring in a number of successful
West End musicals, including in the title role in
The Earl and the Girl (1903-04), as Lieut. Reggie Drummond in
The Talk of the Town (1905, a
Seymour Hicks production), as Aristide in
The Little Michus (1905), as Boniface in
The Spring Chicken (1905), as Lieut. Reginald Armitage in
The White Chrysanthemum (1905), as Captain Flapper in
Billee Taylor (revival, c. 1906), as the Hon. Jack Hylton in
My Darling (1907, also a Hicks production), and in the title role in
The Amateur Raffles (1907)
He also returned to the Savoy Theatre, during this period, for some guest appearances and appeared in the D'Oyly Carte repertory seasons in 1907 and 1908-09. His roles there were the title role in
The Mikado, Dick Deadeye in
Pinafore, Strephon in
Iolanthe, the Pirate King in
Pirates, 'Giuseppe in
The Gondoliers, and briefly, Ko-Ko in
The Mikado and Sir Joseph in
Pinafore. By the time
HMV began using D'Oyly Carte principals in its recordings of the
Savoy Operas, however, Lytton’s voice wasn't thought suitable for the gramophone. Of the many HMV recordings issued in the inter-war years, he was included in only
Princess Ida in 1924 (acoustic) and 1932 (electrical),
The Mikado in 1926,
The Gondoliers in 1927, and
H.M.S. Pinafore in 1930. He also sang Ko-Ko in a 1926 BBC radio broadcast of
The Mikado and appeared in the same role in a four-minute long silent promotional film made of the D'Oyly Carte organisation in 1926.
[ On most of the other recordings of the period, George Baker replaced him.]
A photograph of Lytton and D'Oyly Carte colleagues with the huge recording horn used in the acoustic recording process can be seen here
.
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