In their pantomimes, the diminutive Leno and the massive Campbell were a visually comic duo. They would often deviate from the script, improvising freely. This was met with some scepticism by producers, who feared that the scenes would not be funny to audiences and observed that, in any event, they were rarely at their best until a few nights after opening. George Bernard Shaw wrote of one appearance: "I hope I never again have to endure anything more dismally futile", and the English essayist and caricaturist Max Beerbohm stated that "Leno does not do himself justice collaborating with the public". He noted, however, that Leno "was exceptional in giving each of his dames a personality of her own, from extravagant queen to artless gossip". In "Sleeping Beauty", Leno and Campbell caused the audience to laugh even when they could not see them: they would arrive on stage in closed palanquins and exchange the lines, "Have you anything to do this afternoon, my dear?" – "No, I have nothing on", before being carried off again. Leno and Campbell's pantomimes from 1889 were "Jack and the Beanstalk" (1889 and 1899), "Beauty and the Beast" (1890 and 1900), "Humpty Dumpty" (1891 and 1903), "Little Bo-Peep" (1892), "Robinson Crusoe" (1893), "Dick Whittington and His Cat" (1894), "Cinderella" (1895), "Aladdin" (1896), "Babes in the Wood" (1897) and the "Forty Thieves" (1898).