After "Brantinghame Hall" closed, he again played Chrysos in a revival of "Pygmalion and Galatea" at the Lyceum Theatre and played Mr Barnes in his own play, "To the Death", at the Olympic Theatre. He then appeared at the Comedy Theatre under Charles Hawtrey in "Pickwick" (1889), a successful one-act musical play by F. C. Burnand and Edward Solomon based on an episode in "The Pickwick Papers", which Barrington ended up directing and in which he alternated in the roles of Pickwick and Baker. Barrington then created the role of Lt. Col. Cadbury in a Grundy farce called "Merry Margate" and next played Tosser in a comic opera by Solomon and George P. Hawtrey called "Penelope", in which he co-starred with Dan Leno. He also played a number of other roles in other theatres throughout 1889 until he rejoined D'Oyly Carte to create the role of Giuseppe in "The Gondoliers" in December 1889, remaining for the long run of that last Gilbert and Sullivan hit.