In 1950 Helpmann directed an opera for the first time – the Covent Garden production of "Madama Butterfly", with Elisabeth Schwarzkopf in the title role. The production outlasted its director: after many revivals its final performances at the Royal Opera House were in 1993. The following year he joined Olivier and Vivien Leigh at the St James's Theatre, where they presented Shakespeare's "Antony and Cleopatra" and Shaw's "Caesar and Cleopatra". Helpmann played Octavius Caesar in the first and Apollodorus in the second. When the productions were taken to Broadway at the end of the year he played the same roles. He appeared in another Shaw play the following year, as the male lead, the Doctor, opposite Katharine Hepburn as Epifania, in "The Millionairess". Between these plays Helpmann acted in the Powell and Pressburger film "The Tales of Hoffmann", conducted by Sir Thomas Beecham and choreographed by Ashton. Helpmann played all four of the villains in the various stories within the opera, his singing voice dubbed by the Welsh bass Bruce Dargavel.