The Road to Rome

The Road to Rome is a 1926 historical satire by author Robert Sherwood. It has three acts, two settings, and a large cast. The action of the play covers a single evening and the next morning in June 216 B.C., during the Second Punic War. The plot revolves around a Greco-Roman lady who distracts and dissuades Hannibal from capturing Rome after the Battle of Cannae. It was Sherwood's first published play.

The play was first produced by William A. Brady, Jr. and Dwight Wiman, with staging by Lester Lonergan, settings and costumes by Lee Simonson, musical effects by Douglas Moore, and starring Jane Cowl, with Philip Merivale and Richie Ling. It had tryouts at Washington, D.C. and Newark, New Jersey, before its Broadway premiere, all during January 1927. It ran for 396 performances, ending just ten days short of a year.

After a four month tour, the play was revived for another month on Broadway. It also had a separate production company in London starting in May 1928, and was adapted for a 1930 production in Australia by Edith Taliaferro, and a 1955 musical film.