 When the long lease ended in 1924 the theatre was bought outright by Moss Empires.Baroness Orczy’s "The Scarlet Pimpernel" (1903) was first produced at the Theatre Royal by Fred Terry and Julia Neilson before being published as a novel.Although initially the play was met with little success, the novel is credited with influencing the mystery genre and arguably creating the ‘masked hero’ genre.