The reasons why "Thespis" went unrevived are not known. Some commentators speculate that Sullivan used the music in his other operas. If this were true, then "for this reason alone a revival would have become impossible". However, evidence that Sullivan did so has eluded discovery. Another possible explanation is that Gilbert and Sullivan came to regard "Thespis", with its "brazen girls in tights and short skirts", and broad burlesque-style humour, as "the kind of work they wished to avoid". They later renounced "travesti" roles and revealing dresses on their actresses, and made publicly known their disapproval of them. In 1885, Hollingshead wrote to the "Pall Mall Gazette", "Mr. Gilbert is somewhat severe on a style of burlesque which he did much to popularise in the old days before he invented what I may call burlesque in long clothes. … Mr Gilbert never objected to the dresses in "Robert the Devil" nor to the dresses in "Thespis"."