Sullivan first appeared in several amateur productions, but his professional London debut is believed to have been as Ali Brown Windsor in a burlesque by Robert Reece, "Whittington Junior, and his Sensation Cat", at the New Royalty Theatre in 1870, and as Smart in the accompanying farce "Rendezvous". The next year, at the Alhambra Theatre, he took the role of Mr. Cox in a revival of his brother Arthur Sullivan's first comic opera, "Cox and Box", with a libretto by F. C. Burnand. Later in 1871, he ran a provincial touring company, playing Cox, with Richard Temple as Bouncer and Richard D'Oyly Carte conducting. The other works played by "Sullivan's Operetta Company" that summer were two Offenbach adaptations, "Rose of Auvergne" (with Sullivan as Pierre) and "Breaking the Spell," in which Selina Dolaro starred.