Over the remainder of his life, McLellan produced a steady stream of mostly light and often popular musical comedies, frequently in collaboration with the composer Gustave Kerker and later Ivan Caryll.

[4] McLellan's first major success, The Belle of New York, opened at the Casino Theatre on September 28, 1897, to mixed reviews and closed after a two-month run.

The following year the show was brought to London, where it opened at the Shaftesbury Theatre on April 12, 1898, and went on to have an extremely successful run of 697 consecutive performances, closing on December 30, 1899.

The musical was made into two Hollywood films, the first in 1919 with Marion Davies, Etienne Girardot and L. Rogers Lytton, and the second in 1952 with Fred Astaire, Vera-Ellen, Marjorie Main and Keenan Wynn.

[13] A few years after his death his son married the French actress Yvonne Arnaud and in 1927 Marie McLellan published a revised version of The Belle of New York.