The Front Page
Opening Night: October 20, 2016
Closing: January 29, 2017
Theater: Broadhurst Theatre
Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur’s classic 1928 comedy, The Front Page, is now on Broadway. The press room of Chicago’s Criminal Courts Building is buzzing with reporters covering the story of an escaped prisoner. When star reporter Hildy Johnson (John Slattery) accidentally discovers the runaway convict, he and his editor Walter Burns (Nathan Lane) conspire to hide the man from the other reporters, while they chase the biggest scoop of their careers.
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October 20, 2016
Stop those presses. The gleeful breaking news from the Broadhurst Theatre on West 44th Street is that the expertly seasoned revival of “The Front Page” is a mischievous newspaper bundle of earthy delights. Working with a surefire farce of yore and a team of actors representing the deepest bench on Broadway — Nathan Lane, John Slattery, John Goodman, Jefferson Mays, Dylan Baker and Robert Morse are among those on the squad — the production that had its official opening Thursday night crackles with old-school comic smarts. Count among these primo farceurs a splendid director, Jack O’Brien, who knows how to put an acting army 26 strong through the dizzying paces of Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur’s classic piece of Americana.
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October 20, 2016
There are a couple of ways to go in reviewing a new revival of The Front Page. One could bemoan the demise of hard copy and the glory days of tabloid journalism, not to mention of Broadway itself. One could wax Wiki about the celluloid spawn of Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur’s 1928 Broadway hit, beginning with the Howard Hughes-produced 1931 film starring Adolphe Menjou as headline hungry newspaper editor Walter Burns and Pat O’Brien as his derparting-but-not-really ace-in-the-hole, reporter Hildy Johnson. I could cut to the chase and tell you how Nathan Lane and John Slattery are doing as those dueling Windy City wisecrackers.
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October 20, 2016
You want the story? You want to really know what’s up with “The Front Page” on Broadway? Well, pay attention, you lousy baboons. Here’s what you need to know: This sap of a play is older than yesterday’s news. But, I’ll level with you. This is the God’s honest truth: A fellow named Nathan Lane somehow saves it. An all-star revival of the most jaundiced view of journalism ever to grace a stage opened Thursday at the Broadhurst Theatre with a celebrity-filled performance that critics were asked to attend, just like the old days. The play has not aged well and may have you wondering why this 88-year-old needs another spin. Then Lane shows up deep into Act 2 in the nick of time. His Chicago newspaper executive is a thick blur of manic movement and invective, a bulldozer and bone-deep rascal. “You drooling saphead,” he says to someone. Later he lashes: “You got the brains of a pancake.” Lane will crack you up just saying “Shut up!” (which sounds more like “Shad ap!”) His dry humor and gift for physical comedy have never been more urgently needed.
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October 21, 2016
Look, we’re all depressed this election year. We’re sick of seeing know-nothing politicians; of hearing obscene language insulting women and minorities; and we’re disgusted by the media’s bottomless appetite for sensationalism. The only antidote I can suggest for this national malaise is a visit to the Broadhurst Theatre to see the 5,000-volt revival of The Front Page. What’s it about? Oh, all that stuff I just mentioned—but whipped into a hellacious comic frenzy by one of the best acting ensembles you and I may ever see. Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur’s 1928 evisceration of the newspaper racket is a summit of American screwball comedy, and Nathan Lane, John Slattery and two dozen other actors climb it and plant their flag. It’s strange to feel so invigorated and refreshed by a spectacle of rampant cynicism in which love, truth and loyalty are systematically demolished. But see this brutally brilliant masterpiece, and you’ll be inoculated against the viciousness of the world.
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October 21, 2016
“Who the hell reads the second paragraph?” snarls Walter Burns, the merciless newspaper editor in “The Front Page,” examining the copy of his star reporter. And since Mr. Burns is portrayed quite spectacularly by Nathan Lane as a man whose advice you ignore at your peril, I shall state right away — with the rattling fanfare of a hundred manual typewriters — that the revival of Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur’s 1928 classic, which opened on Thursday night at the Broadhurst Theater, is … Dang it! (Imagine I just wrote something saltier.) That’s way too much prose for any paragraph, never mind a lead. No doubt Walter would inform me that you, my impatient audience, have already stopped reading by now. But though “The Front Page” is all about the adrenaline rush that turns journalists into deadline junkies, it’s hard to work up the proper urgency about Jack O’Brien’s production.
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