The Front Page will star Nathan Lane as Walter Burns, John Slattery as Hildy Johnson, John Goodman as Sheriff Hartman, Jefferson Mays as Bensinger, Holland Taylor as Mrs. Grant, and Sherie Rene Scott as Mollie Malloy, with additional casting to be announced.
The show is set in the press room of Chicago's Criminal Courts Building which is buzzing with reporters covering the story of an escaped prisoner. When star reporter Hildy Johnson (Slattery) accidentally discovers the runaway convict, he and his editor Walter Burns (Lane) conspire to hide the man from the other reporters, while they chase the biggest scoop of their careers.
Jack O'Brien's lively and lavish production holds nothing back in terms of busy movement and broad comedy, but the three-act play does not hold up so well by today's standards, containing fewer one-liners and much more exposition than you'd expect from a comedy. I often found myself admiring the production but unable to enjoy it. Slattery is an ideal Hildy, with a cool and unfazed aura. Lane steals the final third of the show with an over-the-top performance with shades of Max Bialystock (his shifty and shameless character from 'The Producers). Goodman is loud, but strangely ineffective, relying heavily on a country accent.
This production, happily, fires on all cylinders. We can't exactly call the cast of twenty-one (plus bit player/understudies) an all-star cast; they are not, all, what we might consider stars. But they are comic all-stars, anyway. To say that Walter Burns-that iconic, hard-boiled city editor who set the mold for hard-boiled city editors on stage and screen for the last eighty-eight years-is played by Nathan Lane is to give you a pretty good idea of what director Jack O'Brien has in mind. No matter that Lane doesn't enter, in the flesh, until well into the evening; his presence permeates the play from the moment we hear him bellowing over a battered and bruised candlestick phone.
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Broadway Revival Production Broadway |
Year | Ceremony | Category | Nominee |
---|---|---|---|
2017 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Costume Design for a Play | Ann Roth |
2017 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Featured Actor in a Play | Nathan Lane |
2017 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Revival of a Play | The Front Page |
2017 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Set Design for a Play | Douglas W. Schmidt |
2017 | Outer Critics Circle Awards | Outstanding Director of a Play | Jack O'Brien |
2017 | Outer Critics Circle Awards | Outstanding Featured Actor in a Play | Nathan Lane |
2017 | Outer Critics Circle Awards | Outstanding Revival of a Play (Broadway or Off-Broadway) | The Front Page |
2017 | Outer Critics Circle Awards | Outstanding Set Design (Play or Musical) | Douglas W. Schmidt |
2017 | Tony Awards | Best Performance by an Actor in a Featured Role in a Play | Nathan Lane |
2017 | Tony Awards | Best Scenic Design of a Play | Douglas W. Schmidt |
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