Harry Greenbank (11 September 1865 – 26 February 1899) was an English author and dramatist best known for contributing lyrics to the successful series of musicals produced at
Daly's Theatre
Daly's Theatre was a theatre in the City of Westminster. It was located at 2 Cranbourn Street, just off Leicester Square. It opened on 27 June 1893, and was demolished in 1937.
The theatre was built for and named after the American impresar ...
by
George Edwardes
George Joseph Edwardes (né Edwards; 8 October 1855 – 4 October 1915) was an English theatre manager and producer of Irish ancestry who brought a new era in musical theatre to the British stage and beyond.
Edwardes started out in theatre ma ...
in the 1890s.
Life and career
Harry Greenbank was born Henry Harveston Greenbank in London, England and had an extraordinarily productive, but short, life.
Greenbank first placed one of his works, ''
Captain Billy'', at the
Savoy Theatre
The Savoy Theatre is a West End theatre in the Strand in the City of Westminster, London, England. The theatre was designed by C. J. Phipps for Richard D'Oyly Carte and opened on 10 October 1881 on a site previously occupied by the Savoy P ...
, set to music by the company's musical director
François Cellier
François Arsène Cellier (14 December 1849 – 5 January 1914), often called Frank, was an English conductor and composer. He is known for his tenure as musical director and conductor of the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company during the original runs ...
. The piece was staged as a curtain-raiser to ''
The Nautch Girl
''The 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. It opened on 30 June 1891 at the Savoy Theatre managed by Richard D ...
'' beginning in 1891. He continued to write such small-scale pieces over the following couple of years, both for the Savoy (''
Mr. Jericho'' in 1893 and ''
Old Sarah'' in 1897) and for the
Lyric Theatre, where
Horace Sedger asked him to supply the English lyrics to
F. C. Burnand's adaptation of the French operetta ''
Le coeur et la main'' (''Incognita'').
After that,
George Edwardes
George Joseph Edwardes (né Edwards; 8 October 1855 – 4 October 1915) was an English theatre manager and producer of Irish ancestry who brought a new era in musical theatre to the British stage and beyond.
Edwardes started out in theatre ma ...
put Greenbank together as lyricist with music director
Sidney Jones and dramatist
Owen Hall to create the hit musical comedy ''
A Gaiety Girl
''A Gaiety Girl'' is an English musical comedy in two acts by a team of musical comedy neophytes: Owen Hall (book, on an outline by James T. Tanner), Harry Greenbank (lyrics) and Sidney Jones (music). It opened at Prince of Wales Theatre in ...
'' in 1893. After the worldwide success of that piece, the three stayed together and subsequently formed the backbone of the team which produced the famous series of very successful series of
Daly's Theatre
Daly's Theatre was a theatre in the City of Westminster. It was located at 2 Cranbourn Street, just off Leicester Square. It opened on 27 June 1893, and was demolished in 1937.
The theatre was built for and named after the American impresar ...
musicals, including ''
An Artist's Model
''An Artist's Model'' is a two-act musical by Owen Hall, with lyrics by Harry Greenbank and music by Sidney Jones, with additional songs by Joseph and Mary Watson, Paul Lincke, Frederick Ross, Henry Hamilton and Leopold Wenzel. It opened at Daly' ...
'' (1895), ''
The Geisha
''The Geisha, a story of a tea house'' is an Edwardian musical comedy in two acts. The score was composed by Sidney Jones to a libretto by Owen Hall, with lyrics by Harry Greenbank. Additional songs were written by Lionel Monckton and James ...
'' (1896), ''
A Greek Slave
''A Greek Slave'' is a musical comedy in two acts, first performed on 8 June 1898 at Daly's Theatre in London, produced by George Edwardes and ran for 349 performances. The score was composed by Sidney Jones with additional songs by Lionel Monckto ...
'' (1898), and ''
San Toy
''San Toy, or The Emperor's Own'' is a "Chinese" musical comedy in two acts, first performed at Daly's Theatre, London, on 21 October 1899, and ran for 768 performances (edging out the same composer's '' The Geisha'' as the second longest run f ...
'' (1899).
At the same time, Greenbank also provided lyrics for two of the most successful of the lighter shows produced by Edwardes at the
Gaiety Theatre ''
The Circus Girl
''The Circus Girl'' is a musical comedy in two acts by James T. Tanner and Walter Apllant (Palings), with lyrics by Harry Greenbank and Adrian Ross, music by Ivan Caryll, and additional music by Lionel Monckton.[A Runaway Girl
''A Runaway Girl'' is a musical comedy in two acts written in 1898 by Seymour Hicks and Harry Nicholls. The composer was Ivan Caryll, with additional music by Lionel Monckton and lyrics by Aubrey Hopwood and Harry Greenbank. It was produced b ...]
'' (1898). He also ventured twice as librettist-lyricist, once with an original musical, ''Monte Carlo'', and once with an adaptation of Lecocq's ''La Petite Mademoiselle'' as ''The Scarlet Feather''. He also contributed additional lyrics for ''The Bric à Brac Will'' (1895) and, posthumously, a song for the London production of ''
A Chinese Honeymoon'' (1901), "Roses Red and White".
Greenbank was often in ill health, and during the production of ''A Greek Slave'', he moved with his wife and son to England's southern coast in an attempt to regain some strength. He died there while writing lyrics for ''San Toy'', and the piece was completed by
Adrian Ross
Arthur Reed Ropes (23 December 1859 – 11 September 1933), better known under the pseudonym Adrian Ross, was a prolific writer of lyrics, contributing songs to more than sixty British musical comedies in the late 19th and early 20th centuries ...
, who, with Greenbank, was largely responsible for establishing the post of lyricist (as opposed to librettist, or co-writer) in the modern musical theatre.
He died in
Boscombe
Boscombe is a suburb of Bournemouth, England. Historically in Hampshire, but today in Dorset, it is located to the east of Bournemouth town centre and west of Southbourne.
Originally a sparsely inhabited area of heathland, from around 1865 B ...
,
Bournemouth,
Hampshire
Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in western South East England on the coast of the English Channel. Home to two major English cities on its south coast, Southampton and Portsmouth, Hampshire ...
at the age of 33.
External links
Profile of GreenbankGreenbank's New York productionsat the
Internet Broadway DatabaseScores to Greenbank shows at the IMSLPGreenbank libretti
{{DEFAULTSORT:Greenbank, Harry
1865 births
1899 deaths
English musical theatre librettists
English musical theatre lyricists
People associated with Gilbert and Sullivan
Writers from Bournemouth
Theatre people from London
English male dramatists and playwrights
19th-century English dramatists and playwrights
19th-century British male writers