Making his stage début at the age of nine and performing professionally by sixteen, Hicks joined a theatrical company and toured America before starring in "Under the Clock" in 1893, the first musical revue ever staged in London. Following this, he starred in a revival of "Little Jack Sheppard" at the Gaiety Theatre, London which brought him to the attention of impresario George Edwardes. Edwardes cast Hicks in his next show, "The Shop Girl", in 1894. Its success led to his participation in two more of Edwardes's hit "girl" musicals, "The Circus Girl" (1896) and "A Runaway Girl" (1898), both starring Terriss. He first played the role of Ebenezer Scrooge in 1901 and eventually played it thousands of times onstage. Hicks, along with his wife, joined the producer Charles Frohman in his theatre company and wrote and starred in a series of extraordinarily successful musicals, including "Bluebell in Fairyland" (1901), "Quality Street" (1902), "The Earl and the Girl" (1903) and "The Catch of the Season" (1904).