author
Roi Cooper Megrue
1883–1927
A witty Broadway playwright, producer, and director of the 1910s and early 1920s, he helped shape a run of popular stage comedies and collaborations. His career connected the theater world with early film, and one of his best-known stage works later became a Buster Keaton movie.
2 Audiobooks
Under Cover
by Wyndham Martyn, Roi Cooper Megrue
It pays to advertise : A farcical fact in three acts
by Roi Cooper Megrue, Walter Hackett
About the author
Born in New York City, Roi Cooper Megrue was an American playwright, producer, and director associated with Broadway in the 1910s and early 1920s. Sources agree that he came from a well-off New York family and studied at Trinity School and Columbia, where he was involved in student writing before moving into professional theater.
He became known for light comedy and commercial stage successes, including Under Cover, It Pays to Advertise, and Potash and Perlmutter in Society. He also directed and produced on Broadway, and he is often remembered for working on Why Marry?, the first play to receive the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. His work moved beyond the stage as well: Seven Chances, which he had co-written for the theater, was later adapted into the 1925 Buster Keaton film.
Megrue died in New York City on February 27, 1927. Though he is not as widely read today as some of his contemporaries, he remains a notable figure from Broadway's fast-moving commercial theater era, especially for the way he combined writing, producing, and directing in one career.