The play was a commercial success,[3] famed for its spectacle, with large numbers of authentic Algerian people, live animals, and complex set designs and effects.

[6] Leads Supporting Featured Several of the play's nine scenes had no spoken lines as such, but were moving tableaux of life in the desert and the oasis town of Beni-Mora.

[14] The collaborator was the long-retired actress Mary Anderson, who convinced Hichens to allow George C. Tyler to buy the dramatic rights for Liebler & Company.

[fn 2][15] Liebler & Company leased the New Theater building on Central Park West in March 1911, in order to stage large-scale productions, the first of which would be The Garden of Allah.

[17] Tyler, with stage director Hugh Ford and set designer Edward A. Morange, met Hichens in Biskra, Algeria during April 1911.

They provided atmosphere and handled the menagerie of animals: camels, horses, goats, and donkeys, which were housed in the large basement of the Century Theatre.

[9] Every seat was filled, many with socially prominent people, and speculators were openly selling their tickets despite a recent New York law prohibiting re-sales.

The crowd was disappointed that neither author appeared on stage to take a bow (both Hitchens and Anderson were backstage) but were gratified that Lewis Waller spoke in their place.

[5] There was also consensus in regarding Lewis Waller as having played the Boris Androvsky role moderately well, while expressing some disappointment with Mary Mannering as Domini Enfilden.

[8][10] Opinions on the other performers varied, with only the young unknown José Ruben drawing praise from multiple critics as the poetic guide Batouch.

[32] When it left Lehigh Station in Jersey City on August 23, 1912, it carried a message in electric lights along the length of the rail cars, spelling out "'The Garden of Allah' Special".

There was another, more successful revival of the Hichens and Anderson treatment, produced by Arthur Collins at the Drury Lane theatre in London, opening June 24, 1920.