 The 21-year-old actor wrote the lyrics to his character's hit song "Beautiful, bountiful Bertie", which he popularised in both London and New York.Grossmith left the musical stage for about three years, appearing in straight comedies, but he returned in 1898 to take over in the musical "Little Miss Nobody" and then as Mark Antony in the burlesque, "Great Caesar" (1899), which Grossmith had written with Paul Rubens.The piece was not successful, but he wrote another (also unsuccessful piece), "The Gay Pretenders" (1900), in which he included roles for both himself and his famous father, that played at the Globe Theatre with a cast also including John Coates, Frank Wyatt, Letty Lind and Richard Temple.