The following year, Robert Buchanan, the lessee of the Lyric Theatre, cast her in the title role in Sweet Nancy,  his dramatisation of Rhoda Broughton's then popular novel. Annie Hughes was a sensation in the play. Harriet Jay, in her biography of Buchanan (1902), recalls:

'Never was a comedy of the kind better played; indeed, Mr. John Hare, witnessing the performance at the Royalty, averred that the acting was the very best he had seen for years. Miss Annie Hughes was inimitable as Nancy... Everything was going well and the piece was giving promise of a successful run when Miss Hughes was taken ill and had to resign the leading part. An attempt was made to find a substitute for this delightful comédienne, but ... without Miss Hughes “Sweet Nancy” was absolutely worthless, so perfect in its captivation had been her rendering of the character. So the piece was withdrawn.'

Over the next decade, she played the lead role in Sweet Nancy several times, including at the Avenue Theatre in 1898. She also appeared in may other plays, including J. Comyn Carr's King Arthur with Henry Irving and Ellen Terry at the Lyceum in 1895.

As she approached 40, she was no longer being offered starring parts in the musical comedies that featured much younger and perhaps less talented women. So she went to America where she played in touring companies and in eleven Broadway productions between 1906 and 1920. She made her Broadway debut in Mr. Hopkinson (1906). The last was The Tragedy of Nan (1920) that survived for only 4 performances.

Shortly afterwards, she retired from the stage and returned to England. In 1928, she did appear in an all-star special Royal Matinee performance of The Scarlet Pimpernel at the Palace Theatre in the presence of King George V and Queen Mary.

In 1887, she was married to Edmund Fitz-Maurice Lenon who, as Edmund Maurice, was sometimes an actor. She died in 1954, aged 80.