The Times dismissed the piece but praised her performance highly: "It was no burlesque; it was one excellent dancer following in the steps of another, catching the spirit of her model, and rivalling her in the audacity of her execution.

[1] In 1860–1861, at the Lyceum Theatre, she played again in Magic Toys, as Morgiana in the Savage Club burlesque of The Forty Thieves, in the farce The Middy Asthore, as Fanchette in George Loder's The Pets of the Parterre (Les Fleurs animées) and as Mephisto in the fairy extravaganza Chrystabelle, or the Rose Without a Thorn.

[1] In 1864, at the opening of the new Theatre Royal, Birkenhead, managed by Alexander Henderson (1828–1886), she created the title role in a burlesque of Ixion by F. C. Burnand.

She joined Henderson's company at Prince of Wales's Theatre, Liverpool, together with the rising young actors Squire Bancroft, Marie Wilton and Henry Irving.

Thompson excelled as "principal boy" in burlesques: "She was charming to look at, a good singer, a really clever dancer, and the life and soul of the scene while on the stage.

Her productions included wit, parody, song, dance, spectacle, music and strong, clever women characters.

[9] Nearly a half century later, an article in the New York Clipper recalled: "The present school of burlesque originated with Lydia Thompson.

"[10] Thompson's troupe, called the "British Blondes", was the most popular entertainment in New York during the 1868–1869 theatrical season: "The eccentricities of pantomime and burlesque – with their curious combination of comedy, parody, satire, improvisation, song and dance, variety acts, cross-dressing, extravagant stage effects, risqué jokes and saucy costumes – while familiar enough to British audiences, took New York by storm.

The troupe launched the careers of several actors, including Markham, Alice Burville, Lisa Weber and Rose Coghlan, and of comedian Willie Edouin.

Burlesques, colloquially referred to as leg-shows, started off tame, clever and sophisticated, drawing in all types of people, especially women.

In the summer of 1869 a wave of ‘anti-burlesque hysteria’ in the New York press frightened away the middle-class audiences that had initially been drawn to Ixion and sent the Thompson troupe prematurely packing for a national tour”.

Thompson's shows were described as a “disgraceful spectacle of padded legs jiggling and wriggling in the insensate follies and indecencies of the hour”.

[16] Thompson, Henderson, and her troupe finally returned to England in 1874, and she resumed her starring roles in London and provincial productions, including H. B. Farnie's burlesques of Bluebeard (which she had already made a hit in America) and Robinson Crusoe, and Robert Reece's Carmen, or, Sold for a Song, as well as Piff-Paff (Le Grand Duc de Matapa), Oxygen, The Lady of Lyons, Pluto!

In her production of Bluebeard, she received a review in the Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News saying, “the acting of Miss Lydia Thompson not even the most fastidious can find fault.

[2] Back in London, George Edwardes cast her briefly in the Edwardian musical comedy An Artist's Model (1895), but by 1899, she had depleted her funds.