A series of mainly failures Gill was never able to recreate the success of
Adonis, and this work was followed by a series of flops, including the original works
Two Bad Men (1884),
Capers, or Fun in a Boarding School (1884),
Muddles (1885),
Bluff (1885), and
Aphrodite Still in the Ring (1886); most of them written with Jessop. Another stage failure included a revised version of
Fred Eustis's
Penny Ante which was retitled
A Modern Venus (1885) after Gill significantly altered the piece in an unsuccessful attempt to rescue the work for Eustis and Ben Tuthill's theatre troupe. Gill's unlucky streak was temporarily broken with a modest success in the play
Buttons which premiered at the Howard Opera House in Burlington, Vermont on 17 August 1885. Written for the husband and wife acting team
Tony and Gertie Hart, the work toured for a year. This piece was followed by one of Gill's most harshly reviewed works,
Chestnuts (later retitled
Mugwumps), which debuted to scathing reviews in
New Britain, Connecticut on 2 November 1885. This work had been thrown together rapidly for the husband and wife performing team of actor
Richard Golden and soprano
Dora Wiley, and was a poor imitation of Gill's earlier
A Bottle of Ink. He recycled the plot from these works again in a third work, the farce
A Toy Pistol, which was another work Gill crafted for the Harts. After this third play began its run at Broadway's Comedy Theater on 20 February 1886, Golden complained to the press that the work was his because of its close similarities to
Chestnuts. However,
A Toy Pistol was altered several times during its Broadway run, and proved to be another successful year-long touring work for the Harts. Gill also crafted a second play for William J. Florence and Malvina Pray Florence,
The Flirt, which premiered in the autumn of 1886 and was a modest success. It remained in their repertoire through 1888.
'Arcadia' and the Kimballs After the original Broadway production of
Adonis closed in April 1886, it was replaced at the Bijou Theatre by another play authored by Gill, the children's
pantomime Arcadia, which had previously debuted three weeks earlier at the Bijou Theatre in Boston. The central character of this play was Tom (portrayed by the actress Lizzie St. Quinten), taken from the nursery rhyme "
Tom, Tom, the Piper's Son". Gill also directed and starred in this play as the Piper; and earned excellent reviews for his acting but less than stellar reviews for his writing. Theatre critic Earl Marble wrote in the
Boston Mirror, "The Piper of William Gill was one of the best bits of acting in the whole affair which affords a new illustration of the old fact that a man may be a bad playwright and a good actor." With such an assessment,
Arcadia only lasted three weeks its first run on Broadway, and its original cast was disbanded. However,
Arcadia found new life in the hands of
Jennie Kimball who purchased the work from Gill as a starring vehicle for her daughter
Corinne Kimball. The piece was significantly reworked and was given a better quality production with more expensive costumes and sets. It was ultimately a financial and popular success for Corrine and the Kimball company who toured in the work for several years. However, the composer of the music for
Arcadia,
John Joseph Braham Sr., sued the Kimball as he had never been paid by them for the rights to the music to the work. Ultimately
Arcadia returned to New York in January 1888, with the Kimball company being warmly reviewed in their revised version for performances at the Third Avenue Theater and Dockstader's Theater. The run lasted significantly longer than the production's first New York staging.
Arcadia was reworked for the Kimball company again in 1892 by Gill and the composer
Richard Stahl for performances in Philadelphia. It is this version that was performed by the Kimball company at the
World's Columbian Exposition on 7 May 1893; a work that was also presented alongside another play by Gill,
Spider and Fly. Corinne Kimball also starred in another play by Gill that year,
Hendrik Hudson, which premiered on 12 August 1893.
'The Alderman', 'My Boys', 'A Royal Tramp', and 'Old Jed Prouty' Gill wrote two plays which premiered in 1887,
The Alderman and
My Boys.
The Alderman was written for the character actor Odell Williams who starred as the corrupt New York politician Andrew McSlathers. It premiered at the Park Theater in Philadelphia on 3 May 1897 and had some of the best critical reviews of Gill's career as a playwright in the Philadelphia press. The New York press likewise gave a warm reception of the work when it opened at Broadway's
14th Street Theater on 24 May 1897. After its Broadway run ended, the show was performed in Pittsburgh in September 1897. The farce
My Boys was created for the comedy duo of George Richards and Eugene Canfield. It debuted at the Lyceum Theater in
Elizabeth, New Jersey on 21 August 1897. The production then toured throughout
New England before ultimately arriving at New York's Manhattan Theater for a two-week run that began on 18 December 1897. In late 1887 Waddy Gill became seriously ill with pneumonia and Gill temporarily abandoned playwriting during this period; making a living by selling liquor. In 1888 Gill directed the New York production of Alfred Thompson's
The Arabian Nights; a work which had a tremendously successful original production at the
Chicago Opera House in 1887. As with most of Gill's efforts, it was popular but not critical success. He finally returned to writing for the stage by penning the libretto to composer
Charles Puerner's light opera
A Royal Tramp which premiered to negative reviews in Baltimore at Albaugh's Lyceum on 22 January 1889 followed by even worse reviews during a run in Philadelphia.
A Royal Tramp was followed by a much better reviewed work, the four act comedy drama
Old Jed Prouty, which Gill co-authored with Richard Golden. It premiered to good reviews at the opera house in Bangor, Maine, on 22 April 1889 and successfully toured New England and to Philadelphia, before reaching New York's Union Square Theater on 13 May 1889. New York reception of the work was luke-warm, with the piece being described as well crafted and acted but dismissed as a derivative work with nothing new to add to the theatre canon. However,
Old Jed Prouty, was a popular success for Golden who continued to tour widely in the role through 1902; after which the actor Robert Craig toured in the part from 1902 to 1904. Golden also adapted the play into a novel,
Old Jed Prouty, a narrative of the Penobscot, with the writer Mary C. Francis and it was published by G. W. Dillingham Co. in 1901.
'The Seven Ages' Gill re-teamed with Henry E. Dixey and
Adonis producer
Edward E. Rice in the hopes of re-creating the success from their previous partnership. The resulting work was the musical
The Seven Ages which opened at Broadway's Standard Theater on 7 October 1889. The libretto was co-authored by Gill and Dixey. While not achieving the degree of success as their prior collaboration, it had a respectable run of 152 performances; closing on 15 February 1890.
Later plays Gill's last Broadway plays were
Miss Blythe of Duluth (1892),
The Rising Generation (1893),
The Honest Blacksmith (1901), and ''Mrs. 'Mac,' The Mayor'' (1905). Gill adapted
Charles Clark Munn's short story'
Uncle Terry-a Story of the Maine Coast (1900), into the play
Uncle Terry which toured throughout New England in 1901 but never reached Broadway. His next play,
Mrs. Mac, the Mayor, was written for the comic George W. Monroe who performed the title role in drag. This work premiered in
Troy, New York on 9 November 1904 and toured for a year successfully; including a stop at New York's Metropolis Theater. It was Gill's last play to receive a professional staging. Other later plays that Gill penned which never made it to Broadway included
The New Nabobs (premiered 3 October 1893, Dover, New Hampshire) and
A Fatted Calf (premiered at the H. R. Jacobs Theater, Newark, on 15 April 1895). ==Later life and death==