Charles H. Workman

English singer and actor (1872–1923)

Charles Herbert Workman (5 May 1872 – 1 May 1923) was a singer and actor best known as a successor to George Grossmith in the comic baritone roles in Gilbert and Sullivan operas. He was variously credited as Charles H. Workman, C. Herbert Workman and C. H. Workman. Workman joined the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company in 1894 and played several roles with the company in London before becoming principal comedian, for nearly a decade, with D'Oyly Carte touring companies. He was cast in the comic leads for the two London repertory seasons of Gilbert and Sullivan at the Savoy Theatre in 1906−07 and 1908−09, earning mostly enthusiastic reviews. After this, he left the company and took on the management of the Savoy Theatre. He soon fell out with W. S. Gilbert over his production of the dramatist's Fallen Fairies; Gilbert banned Workman from appearing in his operas in Britain. Workman subsequently had leading roles in several West End musical comedies and operettas. In 1914 he relocated to Australia, where he spent much of his later career in his old Gilbert and Sullivan roles with the J. C. Williamson Gilbert and Sullivan Opera Company, and in a few parts in musicals. At the age of 50 he died at sea near Hong Kong while returning from a Williamson tour.

Charles Herbert Workman was born in Bootle, on the outskirts of Liverpool, Lancashire, the son of Charles Workman and his wife, Sarah, née Forrest. He was educated at Waterloo College, Liverpool, and studied singing under his brother, Albert Edward Workman. He toured with D'Oyly Carte until 1906, appearing as John Wellington Wells in The Sorcerer, Sir Joseph Porter in H. M. S. Pinafore, Major General Stanley in The Pirates of Penzance, Reginald Bunthorne in Patience, the Lord Chancellor, King Gama in Princess Ida, Ko Ko, Jack Point, the Duke of Plaza Toro in The Gondoliers, and Scaphio in Utopia. he returned to the Savoy Theatre in 1906 and played the principal comedian roles created by George Grossmith for the company's repertory seasons there and on tour with the company, until 1909, except that he never played a role in Ruddigore, as that opera was not in the D'Oyly Carte repertory during his tenure. In 1907 The Times commented, "As the Duke of Plaza Toro, Mr. Workman surpasses both his predecessors". Of his Jack Point, the paper said: "His patter is delivered with a clearness that neither of the older performers could surpass; he dances as lightly as either, and has as spontaneous a sense of fun. His was the chief triumph of Saturday night." However, The Times warned Workman, "in Patience [he] makes the grave mistake of trying to add fun of his own by clowning to the part of Bunthorne. He is too clever an actor to be allowed to go on in this path without warning." Workman redeemed himself in Iolanthe: "The Lord Chancellor of Mr. Workman is a masterpiece, and the whole audience were of one mind as to the double encore for the dancing trio, and the 'Nightmare' song was sung with marvellous glibness." In Yeomen, when Workman was playing Jack Point, in one scene he stood between the ladies portraying Elsie Maynard and Phoebe Meryll. Workman wrote: "I used to kiss the cheek of first one and then the other, quickly and repeatedly, and Sir William thought there was too much kissing for a Savoy audience. 'You would cut the kissing, then?' I said. 'I would not', he returned drolly, 'but I must ask you to.'"

Workman then left the D'Oyly Carte organisation and became an actor manager. He leased the Savoy and produced two comic operas: Eden & Somerville's The Mountaineers (1909), appearing as Pierre, and W. S. Gilbert and Edward German's Fallen Fairies (1909), appearing as Lutin. He then produced an Edwardian musical comedy, Two Merry Monarchs (1910), appearing as Rolandyl, and an opera, Gluck's Orpheus, (1910). None of these was a financial success. The production of Fallen Fairies was particularly disappointing, leading to a serious battle between Workman and Gilbert. Workman expected Gilbert's libretto, based on Gilbert's successful earlier play The Wicked World, to be followed by more works with the dramatist. However, Workman and his financial backers quarrelled with Gilbert over the casting of the librettist's protégée, Nancy McIntosh, as Selene, the Fairy Queen. At the end of the first week of the run, Workman replaced McIntosh. Gilbert angrily forbade Workman from ever again appearing in any of his works on stage in the United Kingdom, although Gilbert could not enforce a prohibition elsewhere or in the recording studio. In 1910 and 1911, Workman recorded songs, mostly patter songs, for Odeon. Nineteen of these songs were re issued by Pearl in 1974. It is likely that, but for this conflict, Workman would have continued as principal comedian for the D'Oyly Carte company. Workman continued his acting career in London, earning good notices, in The Chocolate Soldier (1910–11, running for 500 performances), Nightbirds (1911) and The Girl in the Taxi (1912–13). In the event Workman did not return and the comic roles were played by Henry Lytton. In Australia in 1920, Workman appeared in the "mystery musical comedy" F. F. F. He also played Ali Baba in the first Australian production of Chu Chin Chow (1920–21) alongside Louie Pounds as Alcolom. In 1922–23, he led a tour of India and east Asia with his wife, Bessel Adams, a former D'Oyly Carte singer, playing in Gilbert and Sullivan, again with J. C. Williamson's company. Adams died suddenly of heart failure on that tour in Calcutta in February 1923. Workman died in May of the same year, just short of his 51st birthday, in a steamer outside Hong Kong, returning from the same tour.

From the Savoy operas, Workman recorded 19 numbers for the Odeon label: Trial by Jury – "When I, good friends, was called to the bar" (1910); The Sorcerer – "My name is John Wellington Wells" (1910); H. M. S. Pinafore – "When I was a lad I served a term" (1910); The Pirates of Penzance – "I am the very model of a modern major general" (1910) and "Sighing softly to the river" (1911–12); Patience – "If you're anxious for to shine" (1910); Iolanthe – "Love, unrequited, robs me of my rest" (1910), "When I went to the bar as a very young man" (1911–12) and "The Law is the true embodiment" (1911–12); Princess Ida – "If you give me your attention" and "Whene'er I spoke sarcastic joke" (1910); The Yeomen of the Guard – "A private buffoon" (1910) "I've jibe and joke" (1910) and "I have a song to sing, o" (with Elsie Spain, soprano)" (1911–12); The Gondoliers – "In enterprise of martial kind" and "I stole the prince" (1910); Utopia Limited – "First you're born, " (1911–12); The Rose of Persia – "There was a small street arab" (1911–12). These recordings have been reissued by Pearl on LP and CD. His other recordings are five numbers from Oscar Straus's The Chocolate Soldier: "That would be lovely" (with Evelyn D'Alroy, soprano), "Sympathy" (with D'Alroy), "The letter song", "The tale of a coat" (with D'Alroy, Amy Augarde, mezzo soprano, and Lemprière Pringle, bass) and the Finale, Act II (with D'Alroy, Augarde and Pringle).