Cornell is regarded as one of the great actresses of the American theatre. Her most famous role was that of English poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning in the 1931 Broadway production of "The Barretts of Wimpole Street". Other appearances on Broadway included in W. Somerset Maugham's "The Letter" (1927), Sidney Howard's "The Alien Corn" (1933), Juliet in "Romeo and Juliet" (1934), Maxwell Anderson's "The Wingless Victory" (1936), S. N. Behrman's "No Time for Comedy" (1939), a Tony Award-winning Cleopatra in "Antony and Cleopatra" (1947), and a revival of Maugham's "The Constant Wife" (1951).