Rolls moved to Australia with his wife in 1924, initially as her manager, but soon became active in theatrical productions. He produced
Aladdin in
Melbourne, with Jennie Benson in the title role, and regularly visited New York to secure the rights to new revues and musicals. In 1928, he mounted the first Australian production of
Jerome Kern's
Sunny, and followed with a production of
Rio Rita. Over the following decade, he worked with all the main theatre companies and managers in Australia, both in Melbourne and Sydney. He joined forces with entrepreneur
George Marlow, but as a result of the growth of
talking pictures and the
Great Depression, the Marlow-Rolls company went into voluntary liquidation. In 1930 Rolls formed his own production company, staging a series of revues at St James Theatre in Sydney, and the following year took over the lease of the
Palace Theatre, Melbourne. He introduced
nudity in some of his revues, such as
Tout Paris in 1933, but with little success until introducing comedies such as
Flame of Desire, which he attempted but failed to turn into a film. He then moved to
New Zealand, and leased a chain of theatres. In 1938 he joined the board of J. C. Williamson's, and was appointed chief producer of the new Australian and New Zealand Theatres Ltd (ANZT). Although the new scheme was not a financial success, Rolls is credited with presenting its most creative and successful shows, including
The Women by
Clare Boothe Luce, with an all-female cast; and the glamorous revue
Folies d’Amour. Financial pressures on Rolls himself, and on the company, led him to return to Britain in 1939. ==Later life and death==