JOHN NEVILLE

Once a darling and white hope of the British classic theatre, what did happen to John Neville? Somehow the career skidded, and early promise was altered. Along the way, he became involved in a few musicals that refused to catch fire

For a boy that started his working life as a stores clerk, John Neville went far, and in the 1950s he was spoken of in the same breath as Richard Burton and, even, Laurence Olivier. The mantle of great actor slipped when he abandoned the London theatre for Nottingham Playhouse, but Neville had a genuine talent. Sadly, the lack of films (he made only a handful in his heyday) means that his name has melted into the past.

He was born in Willesden on 2 May 1925, and educated there, and then at Chiswick County School, subsequently training at RADA. From 1947 he quickly established himself as a Shakespearean actor (from walking on in Richard II at the New Theatre to seasons in Regent's Park, Birmingham Rep, four years with Bristol Old Vic, and graduating to the Old Vic in 1953. In the mid-50s he reached the peak of his fame, sharing the roles of Othello and Iago with Burton, and encompassing Romeo and Richard II. After a stint in America, he returned to the Old Vic for more successes in 1957, but hereafter Shakespeare was mostly left behind, and Neville's career changed direction.

His first musical was engaged at Bristol Old Vic, when he played P C Tom Blenkinsop in the Julian Slade-Dorothy Reynolds trifle, Christmas in King Street, at Christmas 1952. The part was subsequently played by Peter Gilmore when the show, much adapted for London, reached the Vaudeveille Theatre many years later. His Bristol connections also brought about his participation in a now very rare LP The Music of Julian Slade, on which Neville was effective and charming in 'We Smile' and 'A Star'. Oddly, his first appearance in a West End musical also marked the start of his decline as a shining star, and it wasn't even a role that he originated, but a take-over, at a time when take-overs were largely ignored by critics. Assuming the leading role of Nestor in Irma La Douce, Neville picked up from Keith Michell in October 1959, a move that at the time can't have done much for his reputation.

In the spring of the next year he was directing Henry V back at the Old Vic, and there was never a shortage of good work, but in 1961 he joined the newly formed Nottingham Playhouse, a project that seemed to take over his career and removed him from London notice. In fact, Notingham provided a few modest opportunities for indulging in musicals. In 1962 he co-wrote a musical of The Three Musketeers, and played D'Artagnan, but nothing of it reached the West End. In February 1968 he played George Bernard Shaw at Nottingham Playhouse in a musical biography of Shaw, Boots With Stawberry Jam (the cast included Cleo Laine as Ellen Terry and Mrs Patrick Campbell and Ursula Smith as Beatrice Webb). Neville had already played Shaw at the same theatre in a straight play The Bashful Genius (1964) that also featured some well-known figures from the world of musicals, among them Vivienne Martin and Dorothy Reynolds. But the musical version of Shaw's life didn't interest London managements.

In December 1968 Neville got another taste of London, returning to play the lead in John Taylor's musical of Noel Coward one-act plays, Mr and Mrs. Roundly deplored by the critics, Taylor had knocked together one of the most overblown, raucous and obvious entertainments of the 1960s, and the show didn't linger long at the Palace Theatre. Neville's winning performance in this disaster has been completely forgotten. Three years later, he was back in America to star as Humbert Humbert in Lolita, My Love, a musical made from the controversial Nabokov novel. The tour started in February 1971, when the show proved to be a castastrophe. It had marvellous credentials - a libretto by Alan Jay Lerner and music by John Barry - but it was a mistaken project. Neville's performance in the role originally turned down by his old acting mate Richard Burton, was much praised, and he is remembered for singing 'In the Broken Promise Land of Fifteen', but Lolita, My Love collapsed en route to Broadway. It seemed bad luck for its leading man, who had everything that might have made him a star of musical theatre, with acting abilities that were light years away from most of his fellow performers. He was, for instance, the natural choice for a musical of Alfie, a part he played with distinction in the straight play. Like so many others, he suffered from the lack of imagination of British writers and producers, and was allowed to lie fallow.

The steam had gone out of Neville's musical career. There was only one musical left, a revival of The Beggar's Opera at Chichester in 1972 in which he played Macheath, and that was that. He worked consistently in straight theatre and in films, but listening to the very vulgar but immensely enjoyable original cast recording of Mr and Mrs, one can't help regretting that there wasn't more such stuff.

Selected Discography

The Music of Julian Slade
Mr and Mrs: Original London cast recording