At the time "Broken Hearts" was written, Gilbert and Sullivan had already produced their hit one-act comic opera "Trial by Jury" as well as their burlesque-style opera, "Thespis", and their producer Richard D'Oyly Carte was seeking funding to bring them together again. But funding was slow in coming, and both Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan were still producing a considerable amount of work separately: Gilbert produced two other plays that year, for instance. However, four years after "Broken Hearts", "H.M.S. Pinafore" would become such a runaway hit that Gilbert would only produce five theatrical works away from Sullivan in the eleven years following.