[6] Tempest debuted in 1885 as Fiametta in Franz Suppé's operetta Boccaccio at the Comedy Theatre in London, where she also took the title role in Erminie by Edward Jakobowski.

[8] Richard D'Oyly Carte considered engaging her for his opera company but W. S. Gilbert (after seeing her in Dorothy) reported that she "screeched", and the proposal was dropped.

[9] In 1889 Tempest was a replacement player in the title role of Cellier and Stephenson's Doris, brought in to save the flagging show.

[3] She returned to Broadway for the next three years in numerous productions including The Tyrolean, The Fencing Master by Reginald De Koven and Harry B. Smith, and The Algerian.

An American critic wrote in 1894, "Miss Tempest combines a voice of extraordinary pitch and sweetness with the dramatic fervor of an emotional actress to a greater degree probably than any other prima donna now upon the English speaking stage".

[14] In 1895 George Edwardes brought her back to London to star in his Daly's Theatre productions, beginning with Adele in An Artist's Model, which ran for more than 400 performances.

This was followed by title roles in the even more successful The Geisha (1896), which ran for 760 performances, A Greek Slave (1898) and another international hit, San Toy (1899).

In 1900 she created the role of Nell Gwynne in Anthony Hope's English Nell (based on Simon Dale) at the Prince of Wales's Theatre in London,[18] followed at the same theatre in 1901 by the title roles in Peg Woffington by Charles Reade, and Becky Sharp, an adaptation of Vanity Fair, by Robert Hichens and her husband.

She appeared in London in 1907 in The Truth at the Comedy Theatre, written and directed by and starring Dion Boucicault, though "it is the acting of Miss Tempest that people will go to see," said The Observer, "and they will not be disappointed".

[6][3] Returning to England in 1911, Tempest joined a star-studded cast for Herbert Beerbohm Tree's production of The Critic by Richard Brinsley Sheridan, also starring Arthur Bourchier, C. Hayden Coffin, Lily Elsie, George Grossmith, Jr., Charles Hawtrey, Cyril Maude, Gerald Du Maurier, Gertie Millar, Edmund Payne, Courtice Pounds, Violet Vanbrugh and Arthur Williams, among others.

[3] She spent eight years, beginning in 1914, touring in America, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, India, Singapore, China, Japan and the Philippines.

Her second husband had died in 1921, and she married again that same year, this time in Sydney to the actor William Graham Browne, who had accompanied her throughout her tour, and who regularly partnered her onstage in her subsequent West End appearances.

[24] She created the role of Judith Bliss in Noël Coward's Hay Fever (1925), in which she was followed in later revivals by leading actresses from Edith Evans to Judi Dench.

Her popularity continued in such shows as Passing Brompton Road by Jevan Brandon-Thomas and The Cat's Cradle by Aimee and Philip Stuart.

On 28 May 1935, Tempest's golden jubilee was celebrated with a benefit performance at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane attended by King George V and Queen Mary.