Edward Royce (director)

Edward Royce or Edward Royce Jr. (born James William Reddall; 14 December 1870 – 15 June 1964) was an English director and choreographer of musical theatre, best remembered for his series of successful productions on Broadway. His father was the actor, dancer, singer and stage manager E. W. Royce.

Royce choreographed and/or directed more than a dozen comic operas and Edwardian musical comedies in London from 1902 to 1916, most of them for George Edwardes. Moving to Broadway, he directed a series of musicals, including several Princess Theatre musicals, including Oh, Boy! (1917), and such other successes as Irene (1919), Sally (1920), and several Ziegfeld productions.

Royce also directed in Australia and elsewhere in the United States, choreographed a few motion picture musicals, and later returned to England to direct a revival of A Waltz Dream (1934) and co-author a musical comedy, Fritzi (1935).



Life and career
Royce was born in Bath, England. He studied scenic art before becoming a dancer. On the London stage, early in his career, he choreographed and/or staged Merrie England (1902–1903), A Princess of Kensington (1903 also dancing a duet with Winifred Hart Dyke), and shows for George Edwardes, including A Waltz Dream (1908), Our Miss Gibbs (1909), The Dollar Princess (1909), The Girl in the Train (1910), Peggy (1911), The Count of Luxemburg (1911), Gypsy Love (1912) The Marriage Market (1913) and The Happy Day (1916).

Moving to Broadway, he directed The Century Girl (1916), Sally (1920), The Ziegfeld Follies (1920–1921), several other Ziegfeld shows, the hit musical Irene (1919), and Kid Boots (1923) among many others. For No, No, Nanette, Royce directed the show's pre-Broadway run in Chicago, in 1924, but did not direct the Broadway run in 1925. A series of musicals, known as the Princess Theatre musicals, were produced on Broadway between 1915 and 1919, written by the team of Jerome Kern, Guy Bolton and (usually) P. G. Wodehouse. Royce directed the most successful show in the series, Oh, Boy! (1917), which ran for 463 performances (the last few months at the Casino Theatre), making it the third-longest running Broadway musical in the 1910s. Royce directed two other shows in 1917 created by the Princess Theatre team, Leave It to Jane and Have a Heart, which were presented at other Broadway theatres. The same busy year, he also directed an unrelated Broadway hit, Going Up. The following year, he directed the final two Princess Theatre musicals, Oh, Lady! Lady!! and Oh, My Dear!.

Royce also directed in Australia and on the West Coast of the United States. He later choreographed such motion picture musicals as Married in Hollywood (1929), Words and Music (1929), and the British film Aunt Sally (1933) which was released in the U.S. as Along Came Sally (1934).

He returned to London to direct a revival of A Waltz Dream (1934) and co-authored a romantic musical comedy, Fritzi (1935). His last production was at the Bristol Hippodrome in 1954. He died in London at the age of 93.

United States

 * aBroadway, unless otherwise specified