W. H. Denny
Encyclopedia
W. H. Denny was an English singer and actor best remembered for his portrayal of baritone
roles in the Savoy Operas
.
, England. His mother, Mrs. Henry Leigh, was the original Diana in Gilbert and Sullivan
's first collaboration, Thespis
(1871).
Denny appeared as the child in The Stranger in Worcester
at the age of six. He played juvenile parts for several years, tackling his first adult role at the Theatre Royal, Dundee in 1870.
Denny's first role in London was at Sadler's Wells Theatre
in an 1872 revival of Mazeppa, a dramatization of Byron's poem
based on a legend about Ivan Mazeppa. He played the role of Simple in 1874 in The Merry Wives of Windsor
at the Gaiety Theatre, London
. After a series of roles in Shakespeare
plays and in works by H. J. Byron, he was engaged by Richard D'Oyly Carte
in 1876 for a tour as Trenitz in La fille de Madame Angot
, Barthel in The Duke's Daughter, and Tarapote in La Périchole
. Denny then toured America for three years with Lydia Thompson
, also appearing in Philadelphia under the management of Mrs. John Drew.
Returning to London in 1879, Denny appeared as Charles Freeman in Marie Litton's production of The Beaux' Stratagem
, and in her subsequent productions, in a company including John Hare
and the Kendals
. He appeared in comic opera
in an English version of Donizetti
's La fille du régiment
. At the Imperial Theatre, London, he played the role of Sir Charles in She Stoops to Conquer
and Corporal Foss in The Poor Gentleman, both in 1879. The same year, he created the role of Filippo in Alfred Tennyson's Falcon, winning better notices than the play. Next, he created the role of Slater in William and Susan in 1880. He played Angus Macalister in an 1881 revival of W. S. Gilbert
's Engaged
, before going on tour with Lillie Langtry
in 1882, playing roles including Tony Lumpkin in The Rivals
.
Denny was back in New York in 1884–85, and returned to the London stage in 1886–87. He created the role of Hamish in Hamilton's Harvest (1886) ) and the next year he made what The Theatre magazine called "an extraordinary hit" as Noah Topping in Pinero
's Dandy Dick
. While he was in the run of the latter, Arthur Sullivan
saw him, and invited him to audition for the Savoy Theatre
.
at the Savoy on the departure of Rutland Barrington
in 1888 and remained there until 1893. He created the roles of Wilfred Shadbolt in The Yeomen of the Guard
(1888), the Grand Inquisitor, Don Alhambra del Bolero, in The Gondoliers
(1889) and Bumbo in The Nautch Girl
(1891). He next played Bedford Rowe in the revival of The Vicar of Bray
(1892), and he created the character of The McCrankie in Haddon Hall
(1892), leaving the company when the run was completed. In 1893, he appeared in a musical comedy
called Poor Jonathan before returning to D'Oyly Carte to create the part of Scaphio in Utopia, Limited
(1893). He again left the company at the end of the run of that show.
in Julius Caesar
(1902), The Proud Laird (a comedy, 1905), The Earl and the Girl
(a musical, 1906), The Hypocrites (a drama, 1906), The Beauty Spot (a musical, 1909), The Gay Hussars
(an operetta, 1909), Madame X (a melodrama, 1910), and The Blue Bird (a play, 1911). He once more returned to London, making his last appearance there as Stuff, a theatre manager, in Walter Browne's Everywoman in 1912.
Denny also wrote several one-act plays, the best-known of which was A Mutual Mistake (1891). In addition, he wrote song lyrics, such as "How sweet thou art to me" ("Sleep, gentle sleep"), with music by Arthur Weld (1909). Denny was one of the founders of the Actors' Orphanage
, and he maintained an active interest in it. He married Georgina Pike. Their son, Reginald Denny
, became a popular film actor.
Denny died in Herne Bay, Kent
in 1915 at the age of 61.
Baritone
Baritone is a type of male singing voice that lies between the bass and tenor voices. It is the most common male voice. Originally from the Greek , meaning deep sounding, music for this voice is typically written in the range from the second F below middle C to the F above middle C Baritone (or...
roles in the Savoy Operas
Savoy opera
The Savoy Operas denote a style of comic opera that developed in Victorian England in the late 19th century, with W. S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan as the original and most successful practitioners. The name is derived from the Savoy Theatre, which impresario Richard D'Oyly Carte built to house...
.
Early years
Denny was born William Henry Leigh Dugmore at Balsall Heath, BirminghamBirmingham
Birmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It is the most populous British city outside the capital London, with a population of 1,036,900 , and lies at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, the second most populous urban area in the United Kingdom with a...
, England. His mother, Mrs. Henry Leigh, was the original Diana in Gilbert and Sullivan
Gilbert and Sullivan
Gilbert and Sullivan refers to the Victorian-era theatrical partnership of the librettist W. S. Gilbert and the composer Arthur Sullivan . The two men collaborated on fourteen comic operas between 1871 and 1896, of which H.M.S...
's first collaboration, Thespis
Thespis (opera)
Thespis, or The Gods Grown Old, is an operatic extravaganza that was the first collaboration between dramatist W. S. Gilbert and composer Arthur Sullivan. No musical score of Thespis was ever published, and most of the music has been lost...
(1871).
Denny appeared as the child in The Stranger in Worcester
Worcester
The City of Worcester, commonly known as Worcester, , is a city and county town of Worcestershire in the West Midlands of England. Worcester is situated some southwest of Birmingham and north of Gloucester, and has an approximate population of 94,000 people. The River Severn runs through the...
at the age of six. He played juvenile parts for several years, tackling his first adult role at the Theatre Royal, Dundee in 1870.
Denny's first role in London was at Sadler's Wells Theatre
Sadler's Wells Theatre
Sadler's Wells Theatre is a performing arts venue located in Rosebery Avenue, Clerkenwell in the London Borough of Islington. The present day theatre is the sixth on the site since 1683. It consists of two performance spaces: a 1,500 seat main auditorium and the Lilian Baylis Studio, with extensive...
in an 1872 revival of Mazeppa, a dramatization of Byron's poem
Mazeppa (Byron)
This article is about the poem by Lord Byron, for other uses see MazeppaMazeppa is a Romantic narrative poem written by Lord Byron in 1819, based on a popular legend about the early life of Ivan Mazepa , a Ukrainian gentleman who later became Hetman of the Ukrainian Cossacks...
based on a legend about Ivan Mazeppa. He played the role of Simple in 1874 in The Merry Wives of Windsor
The Merry Wives of Windsor
The Merry Wives of Windsor is a comedy by William Shakespeare, first published in 1602, though believed to have been written prior to 1597. It features the fat knight Sir John Falstaff, and is Shakespeare's only play to deal exclusively with contemporary Elizabethan era English middle class life...
at the Gaiety Theatre, London
Gaiety Theatre, London
The Gaiety Theatre, London was a West End theatre in London, located on Aldwych at the eastern end of the Strand. The theatre was established as the Strand Musick Hall , in 1864 on the former site of the Lyceum Theatre. It was rebuilt several times, but closed from the beginning of World War II...
. After a series of roles in Shakespeare
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...
plays and in works by H. J. Byron, he was engaged by Richard D'Oyly Carte
Richard D'Oyly Carte
Richard D'Oyly Carte was an English talent agent, theatrical impresario, composer and hotelier during the latter half of the Victorian era...
in 1876 for a tour as Trenitz in La fille de Madame Angot
La fille de Madame Angot
La fille de Madame Angot is an opéra comique in three acts by Charles Lecocq. The French text was by Clairville, Paul Siraudin and Victor Koning.-Performance history:...
, Barthel in The Duke's Daughter, and Tarapote in La Périchole
La Périchole
La Périchole is an opéra bouffe in three acts by Jacques Offenbach. Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy wrote the French-language libretto based on the 1829 one act play Le carrosse du Saint-Sacrement by Prosper Mérimée, which was revived on 13 March 1850 at the Théâtre-Français...
. Denny then toured America for three years with Lydia Thompson
Lydia Thompson
Lydia Thompson, born Eliza Hodges Thompson , was an English dancer, actress and theatrical producer....
, also appearing in Philadelphia under the management of Mrs. John Drew.
The Beaux' Stratagem
The Beaux' Stratagem is a comedy by George Farquhar, first produced at the Haymarket Theatre, London, in March 1707. In the play, Archer and Aimwell, two young gentlemen who have fallen on hard times, plan to travel through small towns, entrap young heiresses, steal their money and move on. In the...
, and in her subsequent productions, in a company including John Hare
John Hare (actor)
Sir John Hare , born John Fairs, was an English actor and manager of the Garrick Theatre in London from 1889 to 1895.-Biography:Hare was born in Giggleswick in Yorkshire and was educated at Giggleswick school...
and the Kendals
William Hunter Kendal
William Hunter Kendal was an English actor and theatre manager. He and his wife Madge starred at the Haymarket in Shakespearian revivals and the old English comedies beginning in the 1860s. In the 1870s, they starred in a series of "fairy comedies" by W. S. Gilbert and in many plays on the West...
. He appeared in comic opera
Comic opera
Comic opera denotes a sung dramatic work of a light or comic nature, usually with a happy ending.Forms of comic opera first developed in late 17th-century Italy. By the 1730s, a new operatic genre, opera buffa, emerged as an alternative to opera seria...
in an English version of Donizetti
Gaetano Donizetti
Domenico Gaetano Maria Donizetti was an Italian composer from Bergamo, Lombardy. His best-known works are the operas L'elisir d'amore , Lucia di Lammermoor , and Don Pasquale , all in Italian, and the French operas La favorite and La fille du régiment...
's La fille du régiment
La fille du régiment
La fille du régiment is an opéra comique in two acts by Gaetano Donizetti. It was written while the composer was living in Paris, with a French libretto by Jules-Henri Vernoy de Saint-Georges and Jean-François Bayard.La figlia del reggimento, a slightly different Italian-language version , was...
. At the Imperial Theatre, London, he played the role of Sir Charles in She Stoops to Conquer
She Stoops to Conquer
She Stoops to Conquer is a comedy by the Irish author Oliver Goldsmith, son of an Anglo-Irish vicar, first performed in London in 1773. The play is a great favourite for study by English literature and theatre classes in Britain and the United States. It is one of the few plays from the 18th...
and Corporal Foss in The Poor Gentleman, both in 1879. The same year, he created the role of Filippo in Alfred Tennyson's Falcon, winning better notices than the play. Next, he created the role of Slater in William and Susan in 1880. He played Angus Macalister in an 1881 revival of W. S. Gilbert
W. S. Gilbert
Sir William Schwenck Gilbert was an English dramatist, librettist, poet and illustrator best known for his fourteen comic operas produced in collaboration with the composer Sir Arthur Sullivan, of which the most famous include H.M.S...
's Engaged
Engaged (play)
Engaged is a three-act farcical comic play by W. S. Gilbert. It premiered at the Haymarket Theatre on 3 October 1877, the same year as The Sorcerer, one of Gilbert's comic operas written with Arthur Sullivan, which was soon followed by the collaborators' great success in H.M.S. Pinafore...
, before going on tour with Lillie Langtry
Lillie Langtry
Lillie Langtry , usually spelled Lily Langtry when she was in the U.S., born Emilie Charlotte Le Breton, was a British actress born on the island of Jersey...
in 1882, playing roles including Tony Lumpkin in The Rivals
The Rivals
The Rivals, a play by Richard Brinsley Sheridan, is a comedy of manners in five acts. It was first performed on 17 January 1775.- Production :...
.
Denny was back in New York in 1884–85, and returned to the London stage in 1886–87. He created the role of Hamish in Hamilton's Harvest (1886) ) and the next year he made what The Theatre magazine called "an extraordinary hit" as Noah Topping in Pinero
Arthur Wing Pinero
Sir Arthur Wing Pinero was an English actor and later an important dramatist and stage director.-Biography:...
's Dandy Dick
Dandy Dick (play)
Dandy Dick is an 1887 comedy by the British writer Arthur Wing Pinero. It is a farce about a clergyman who has taken a strong line against gambling discovers that he has a share in a racehorse.-Film adaptation:...
. While he was in the run of the latter, Arthur Sullivan
Arthur Sullivan
Sir Arthur Seymour Sullivan MVO was an English composer of Irish and Italian ancestry. He is best known for his series of 14 operatic collaborations with the dramatist W. S. Gilbert, including such enduring works as H.M.S. Pinafore, The Pirates of Penzance and The Mikado...
saw him, and invited him to audition for the Savoy Theatre
Savoy Theatre
The Savoy Theatre is a West End theatre located in the Strand in the City of Westminster, London, England. The theatre opened on 10 October 1881 and was built by Richard D'Oyly Carte on the site of the old Savoy Palace as a showcase for the popular series of comic operas of Gilbert and Sullivan,...
.
Savoy Theatre years
Denny joined the D'Oyly Carte Opera CompanyD'Oyly Carte Opera Company
The D'Oyly Carte Opera Company was a professional light opera company that staged Gilbert and Sullivan's Savoy operas. The company performed nearly year-round in the UK and sometimes toured in Europe, North America and elsewhere, from the 1870s until it closed in 1982. It was revived in 1988 and...
at the Savoy on the departure of Rutland Barrington
Rutland Barrington
Rutland Barrington was an English singer, actor, comedian, and Edwardian musical comedy star. Best remembered for originating the lyric baritone roles in the Gilbert and Sullivan operas from 1877 to 1896, his performing career spanned more than four decades...
in 1888 and remained there until 1893. He created the roles of Wilfred Shadbolt in The Yeomen of the Guard
The Yeomen of the Guard
The Yeomen of the Guard; or, The Merryman and His Maid, is a Savoy Opera, with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert. It premiered at the Savoy Theatre on 3 October 1888, and ran for 423 performances...
(1888), the Grand Inquisitor, Don Alhambra del Bolero, in The Gondoliers
The Gondoliers
The Gondoliers; or, The King of Barataria is a Savoy Opera, with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert. It premiered at the Savoy Theatre on 7 December 1889 and ran for a very successful 554 performances , closing on 30 June 1891...
(1889) and Bumbo in The Nautch Girl
The Nautch Girl
thumb|right|250px|Solomon , with Gilbert and Sullivan irate at his success at the SavoyThe Nautch Girl, or, The Rajah of Chutneypore is a comic opera in two acts, with a book by George Dance, lyrics by Dance and Frank Desprez and music by Edward Solomon...
(1891). He next played Bedford Rowe in the revival of The Vicar of Bray
The Vicar of Bray (opera)
The Vicar of Bray is a comic opera by Edward Solomon with a libretto by Sydney Grundy which opened at the Globe Theatre, in London, on 22 July 1882, for a run of only 69 performances. The public was not amused at a clergyman's being made the subject of ridicule, and the opera was regarded by some...
(1892), and he created the character of The McCrankie in Haddon Hall
Haddon Hall (opera)
Haddon Hall is an English light opera with music by Arthur Sullivan and a libretto by Sydney Grundy. It premiered at the Savoy Theatre on September 24, 1892 for a modestly successful run of 204 performances...
(1892), leaving the company when the run was completed. In 1893, he appeared in a musical comedy
Edwardian Musical Comedy
Edwardian musical comedies were British musical theatre shows from the period between the early 1890s, when the Gilbert and Sullivan operas' dominance had ended, until the rise of the American musicals by Jerome Kern, Rodgers and Hart, George Gershwin and Cole Porter following World War I.Between...
called Poor Jonathan before returning to D'Oyly Carte to create the part of Scaphio in Utopia, Limited
Utopia, Limited
Utopia, Limited; or, The Flowers of Progress, is a Savoy Opera, with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert. It was the second-to-last of Gilbert and Sullivan's fourteen collaborations, premiering on 7 October 1893 for a run of 245 performances...
(1893). He again left the company at the end of the run of that show.
Later years
After leaving the Savoy, Denny appeared again in musicals in London from 1895 to 1897. He created the roles of Pilkington Jones in Gentleman Joe (1895) and Robert White in Dandy Dan (1897). He later toured Australia and New Zealand in a Shakespeare company, playing Bottom and Touchstone. He was back on the New York stage beginning in 1905, appearing on BroadwayBroadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
in Julius Caesar
Julius Caesar (play)
The Tragedy of Julius Caesar, also known simply as Julius Caesar, is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in 1599. It portrays the 44 BC conspiracy against...
(1902), The Proud Laird (a comedy, 1905), The Earl and the Girl
The Earl and the Girl
The Earl and the Girl is a musical comedy in two acts by Seymour Hicks, with lyrics by Percy Greenbank and music by Ivan Caryll. It was produced by William Greet and opened at the Adelphi Theatre in London on 10 December 1903. It transferred to the Lyric Theatre on 12 September 1904, running for...
(a musical, 1906), The Hypocrites (a drama, 1906), The Beauty Spot (a musical, 1909), The Gay Hussars
The Gay Hussars
The Gay Hussars is an operetta in three acts by Emmerich Kálmán. The piece was Kalman's first operetta and a hit throughout Europe and America. The first version, in Hungarian, Tatárjárás, with libretto by Karl von Bakonyi and Andor Gábor, premiered at the Lustspieltheater in Budapest on 22...
(an operetta, 1909), Madame X (a melodrama, 1910), and The Blue Bird (a play, 1911). He once more returned to London, making his last appearance there as Stuff, a theatre manager, in Walter Browne's Everywoman in 1912.
Denny also wrote several one-act plays, the best-known of which was A Mutual Mistake (1891). In addition, he wrote song lyrics, such as "How sweet thou art to me" ("Sleep, gentle sleep"), with music by Arthur Weld (1909). Denny was one of the founders of the Actors' Orphanage
Actors Orphanage
The Actors Orphanage was started in 1896 by Kittie Carson at Croydon and was established as The Actors Orphanage Fund in 1912.In 1915 the Orphanage moved to Langley Hall at Langley . The orphanage was both a home and a school to approximately 60 children...
, and he maintained an active interest in it. He married Georgina Pike. Their son, Reginald Denny
Reginald Denny (actor)
Reginald Denny was an English stage, film, and television actor. He was once an amateur boxing champion of Great Britain.-Acting career:...
, became a popular film actor.
Denny died in Herne Bay, Kent
Herne Bay, Kent
Herne Bay is a seaside town in Kent, South East England, with a population of 35,188. On the south coast of the Thames Estuary, it is north of Canterbury and east of Whitstable. It neighbours the ancient villages of Herne and Reculver and is part of the City of Canterbury local government district...
in 1915 at the age of 61.