Starting out in the late 1880s, Ross wrote the lyrics for the earliest British musical theatre hits, including "In Town" (1892), "The Shop Girl" (1894) and "The Circus Girl" (1896). Ross next wrote the lyrics for a string of hit musicals, beginning with "A Greek Slave" (1898), "San Toy" (1899), "The Messenger Boy" (1900) and "The Toreador" (1901) and continuing without a break through World War I. He also wrote the English lyrics for a series of hit adaptations of European operettas beginning with "The Merry Widow" in 1907.