star. In 1901, at the age of eight, Courtneidge made her stage debut as the fairy Peaseblossom in her father's production of A Midsummer Night's Dream at the Prince's Theatre, Manchester. Courtneidge was educated in England and, for two teenage years, in Switzerland. On returning from the latter, aged 15, she embarked on an acting career, with the approval and encouragement of her parents. Robert Courtneidge cast her in small ingénue roles in his productions. Her London West End debut was at the Apollo Theatre in the comic opera Tom Jones (1907), which had a libretto co-written by her father. Her first starring role was Eileen Cavanagh in the long-running Edwardian musical comedy The Arcadians, which she took over from Phyllis Dare in 1910. In the piece that followed, The Mousmé (1911), which also featured a book co-written by her father, she was cast in one of the two leading female roles alongside Florence Smithson. At this stage in Courtneidge's career, there was some feeling in theatrical circles that her elevation to star status was largely due to her being Robert Courtneidge's daughter. Reviewing The Mousmé, The Observer wrote that the co-authors had "failed to supply any adequate dramatic raison d'être for the prominent character of Miyo, a fair-haired Japanese damsel, embodied by Miss Cicely Courtneidge with much sprightliness but far too much effort, facial and otherwise, of coy significance." The Times liked her better and praised her "pretty impudence and roguery". Courtneidge continued to star in her father's productions. In September 1913, she played the part of Lady Betty Biddulph in the musical comedy The Pearl Girl. The cast included Ada Blanche; this was the third successive production in which aunt and niece had appeared together. Also in the cast, in the role of Robert Jaffray, was the 21-year-old Jack Hulbert, making his professional debut after success as an amateur while a Cambridge undergraduate. In June 1914, Courtneidge and Hulbert starred together in The Cinema Star, an adaptation by Hulbert and Harry Graham of Die Kino-Königin, a 1913 German comic opera by Jean Gilbert. The piece was a hit for Courtneidge and her father, playing to full houses at the Shaftesbury Theatre until Britain and Germany went to war in August 1914; anti-German sentiment brought the run to an abrupt halt. In 1914, Courtneidge and Hulbert became engaged to be married, but their plans were delayed by Robert Courtneidge's