Darryl Maximilian Robinson Appears As Bensinger In CCPT'S THE FRONT PAGE at The Excaliber Shakespeare Company Los Angeles Archival Project

DARRYL MAXIMILIAN ROBINSON APPEARS AS BENSINGER IN CCTP'S 2024 STAGE REVIVAL OF "THE FRONT PAGE"!

At 2:30 pm on Saturday and Sunday Afternoons from July 13th through August 4th of 2024, veteran and award-winning stage actor and play director Darryl Maximilian Robinson will appear as Chicago Tribune News Reporter Roy V. Bensinger in The 2024 Culver City Public Theatre outdoor stage production of Ben Hecht's and Charles MacArthur's classic comedy "The Front Page" at Dr. Paul Carlson Memorial Park in Culver City, and Admission Is Absolutely Free. 

Currently celebrating 50 years as an American Stage Performer ( with involvement in over 250 live theatre and literary arts presentations around the country ), Darryl Maximilian Robinson, The Founder, Artistic Director and Producer of both the multiracial theatre groups The Excaliber Shakespeare Company of Chicago and The Excaliber Shakespeare Company Los Angeles Archival Project, was recently delighted and thrilled to be cast in the well-written, comedic supporting role of the extremely tidy, fussy, poetry-spewing, hypochondriac Chicago Tribune Feature News Reporter Roy V. Bensinger in the 2024 Culver City Public Theatre new revival production of the 1928 classic comedy by former real-life Chicago News Reporters Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur, "The Front Page," which in this new stage adaptation has been cleverly blended with the 1941 female revision screenplay of "His Girl Friday" by Charles Lederer.

Both the original late 1920s stage play and the early 1940s film script addressed the same issue: the epic comic battle of wits between the influential newspaper editor and publisher Walter Burns and his #1 newspaper reporter Hildy Johnson, who desperately wants out of the news reporting business in order to get married, settle down and have a normal life, and who the unscrupulous Burns desperately wants to keep in the newspaper business at all costs. 

In the acclaimed 1928 play, Hildy, first played by a male actor, wanted to run off and elope with his lovely female intended. This was a plan Burns wrecked with unrelenting deception and sabotage. In the 1941 classic movie, a female incarnation of Hildy, played by the late, great Oscar-nominated Rosalind Russell, had the misfortune of previously marrying Burns, played by the late, great Cary Grant, who was determined to derail her upcoming marriage and honeymoon to her new man, Bruce Baldwin, an insurance agent, and whom Burns correctly claimed bore an incredible resemblance to the late, great Ralph Bellamy.

This romantic, screwball comedy all takes place in the raucous confines of The Press Room of A City Jail on the eve of the execution of a condemned man, Earl Williams, who may or not be altogether sane or altogether a radical. And when Williams shoots a renowned psychologist ( sent to examine him ) with the sheriff of the town's own gun and subsequently escapes, just days before a major city election, a media frenzy amongst the reporters breaks loose, and Burns uses every trick in the book to keep Hildy covering the story.

The Culver City Public Theatre new stage revival of "The Front Page," which has been effectively adapted and directed by local LA theatre veteran Trace Oakley, highlights many elements of both the original 1928 play and 1941 film, and features a full company of talented and versatile actors led by Rizzy Fuentes as Walter Burns, Tanya Laine as Hildy Johnson and Philip Rossi as Bruce Baldwin.

Other skilled performers featured in "The Front Page" include: Danielle Fraser as Endicott, Tamara Koltes as Molly Malloy, Steven Milner as Sheriff Hartman, Eric Billitzer doubling as Dr. Max J.  Eglehofffer and The Mayor, Alicia Sterling Beach as McCue , Ted Burke as Diamond Louie , Phoenix Ever as Wilson, Rory McLaverty as Schwartz, Lynda Palmer as Mrs. Baldwin, Roderick Walker as Murphy and Tae Ho Yoon doubling as Gus and Earl Williams. Adapter and Director Trace Oakley will appear in the role of Mr. Pinkus.

Winner of both a 1997 Chicago Joseph Jefferson Citation Award for Outstanding Actor In A Principal Role In A Play and a 1997 Chicago Black Theatre Alliance  / Ira Aldridge Award nomination for Best Leading Actor In A Play for his critically-praised performance as Sam Semela in The Excaliber Shakespeare Company of Chicago revival staging of Athol Fugard's "Master Harold And The Boys" as well as a 1998 WKKC Radio Chicago Critic's Corner Fine Arts Award for Outstanding Director of A Play for his noted revival of Samuel Beckett's "Waiting For Godot" ( in which he appeared as Vladimir ), Darryl Maximilian Robinson in his supporting role as Chicago Tribune News Reporter Roy V.  Bensinger ( a role played most memorably by the late, great 1930s and 1940s comic film character actor Edward Everett Horton in the 1931 Oscar-nominated Best Picture version of "The Front Page" ) is the sole Chicago-born and stage-trained actor in the gifted and diverse cast of The Culver City Public Theatre 2024 revival of "The Front Page."

For further info on seeing veteran stage actor and play director Darryl Maximilian Robinson as News Reporter Roy V. Besinger in the 2024 Culver City Public Theatre Free Theatre-In-The-Park revival of the classic comedy "The Front Page" visit:

https://www.ccpt.org/

All 2024 Publicity Photos of The Culver City PublicTheatre Revival Production of "The Front Page" by Kelsey Danzeisen.

All July 7, 2024 Color Dress / Tech / Production Photos of THE FRONT PAGE by Trace Oakley.

2024 Culver City Public Theatre Costume Design for "The Front Page" by Sophia April Grose.

Theatre Review: 'Culver City Public Theatre Production of THE FRONT PAGE Is Charming, Monty Python Silly, And Laugh Out Loud Funny'

By Therese Dersch in American Towns

August 10, 2024

Note: "The Front Page" was presented by The Culver City Public Theatre July 13th through August 4th of 2024 at The Carlson Memorial Park in Culver City, California. The Production recently closed. This is a post-production notice by an audience member.

"The Front Page," the play the film "His Girl Friday" is based on, was first produced in 1928. Written by two former Chicago reporters Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur, one wonders what craziness was going on in the newsrooms of the time that inspired it.

The Culver City Public Theatre production is charming, silly in the best Monty Pythonish way, and laugh out loud funny.

The story centers around reporters working the police beat in Chicago. One of them, Hildy, plans to leave the newspaper business for what she feels is a more respectable life as a wife to an insurance salesman. Life, as often happens, has other plans for her.

The play starts off a little slowly to acclimate the audience to the time and feeling of the newsroom, then takes off like a rocket. It's worth seeing alone for a wonderful bit of physical comedy involving a roll-top desk.

The cast is all quite good, with Tanya Laine's Hildy as a particular standout. Her Hepburnese take no prisoners interpretation of Hildy is completely believable.

Supporting cast members are equally strong, and Lynda Palmer as Hildy's long suffering future mother in law, and Tamara Koltes as a prisoner's chair-wielding girlfriend were particular favorites.

The play is at Dr. Paul Carlson Memorial Park and is free. Highly recommended as a fun romp through an old-timey newsroom. 

Therese Dersch is an experienced educator and longtime performing arts supporter.