In 1885, Cellier composed a song, "There once was a time, my darling", for a piece produced by George Edwardes, "Little Jack Sheppard" (1885). Meanwhile he had composed what would become his greatest success, the comic opera "Dorothy", with a libretto by B. C. Stephenson. To create the score, Cellier repurposed some of his music from his 1876 failure, "Nell Gwynne", which had, nevertheless, received praise for its music. "Dorothy" had been announced for production at the Royalty Theatre in 1884, but ultimately Edwardes mounted it at his Gaiety Theatre on 25 September 1886. Cellier was in Australia from February 1886 to February 1887, conducting "The Mikado" and other Gilbert and Sullivan operas for J. C. Williamson and was absent from London during the productions of "The Carp", at the Savoy, and "Dorothy". Neither the music nor the libretto of "Dorothy" initially attracted critical praise. "The Times" wrote, "Gentility reigns supreme, and with it unfortunately also a good deal of the refined feebleness and the ineptitude which are the defects of that quality." Stephenson rewrote the lyrics of one of Cellier's old songs, "Old Dreams" as "Queen of My Heart"; this helped the work to find success after it transferred in December to the Prince of Wales Theatre. The following year H. J. Leslie took over the production from Edwardes and introduced new stars, including Marie Tempest and Ben Davies, who made "Dorothy" an even greater success at the box office. It transferred in December 1888 to the Lyric Theatre, built using the profits from the production, where it ran into 1889. Its initial run of a total of 931 performances was the longest of any piece of musical theatre up to that time, considerably longer than even "The Mikado", a fact that caused consternation to Cellier's friend Arthur Sullivan. Some critics reconsidered their earlier condemnation, the work became regarded as a classic Victorian piece, and the initially despised plot was traced seriously back to the Restoration playwrights David Garrick and Aphra Behn, and to Oliver Goldsmith and even Shakespeare. Its success led to revivals of some of Cellier's earlier works.