 "Dorothy" anticipated George Edwardes's musical comedy hits of the 1890s and 1900s, and its remarkable success showed Edwardes and other theatre managers that audiences were ready for a shift towards the more topical pieces that soon dominated the musical theatre stage.In 1885, Cellier had composed a song, "There once was a time, my darling", for a piece produced by Edwardes, "Little Jack Sheppard" (1885).Cellier, who had been a lieutenant of Arthur Sullivan, re-purposed much of the music for "Dorothy" from his unsuccessful comic opera of ten years earlier, "Nell Gwynne", the music of which had been praised.