The Beauty of Bath was the first production at the theatre. Later stage work In The Dashing Little Duke (1909; with C. Hayden Coffin, Courtice Pounds and Louie Pounds), produced by Hicks at the Hicks Theatre, which was less successful, Hicks' wife played the title role (a woman playing a man). When she missed several performances due to illness, Hicks played the role – possibly the only case in the history of a musical where a husband succeeded to his wife's role. The piece was based on A Court Scandal, in which Hicks had played in 1899. Hicks then wrote and starred in Captain Kidd (1910), an adaptation with music and lyrics by Leslie Stuart and Adrian Ross, of the American farce The Dictator (1904 by Richard Harding Davis). This flopped, bringing an end to the era of supremacy in London's musical theatre of Hicks and Terriss. Hicks appeared in his first Shakespeare play that year, Richard III. The same year, he penned the first of several autobiographies. The following year, he took a company on a tour of South Africa. After the outbreak of World War I, Hicks was the first British actor to bring a tour to France (with Terriss), giving concerts to British troops at the front. Because of this, he was awarded the French Croix de Guerre. Hicks was briefly declared bankrupt in 1915. Hicks and Terriss concentrated on comedy roles and music hall tours in later years, including Pebbles on the Beach (1912), singing and dancing 'Alexander's Ragtime Band'. Their one return to musical comedy, Cash on Delivery (1917), confirmed the public's preference for comedy revues and music hall. Hicks continued to write light, escapist comedies, such as The Happy Day (1916), Sleeping Partners (1917) and, after the war, satiric farces, such as Good Luck and Head Over Heels (1923) and adaptations of French farces (The Man in Dress Clothes). Film career, Scrooge and later years Hicks appeared in three early silent films: Scrooge and David Garrick in 1913, and A Prehistoric Love Story in 1915, all directed by Leedham Bantock. He decided in 1923 to produce his own films. His first film, in which he starred, was Always Tell Your Wife, which was based on one of his plays. While making that film, Hicks fired the director and hired an unknown young director to make his debut: Alfred Hitchcock. Hicks directed Sleeping Partners (1930)