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.
With his jauntily angled fedora and suit jacket slung over his shoulder, Slattery comes across as more of a Rat Pack swinger than a flapper-following flirt just before the Jazz Age was snuffed out by Black Monday. But it suits him and he's an instant bright spot among the malcontents who've been forced into a long night awaiting the 7 AM hanging of Earl Williams, an illiterate white man who has been convicted of killing a black cop. Hildy's plans inspire caustic merriment among his pals, who insist it won't be long until he 'has seven kids, a mortgage and belongs to a country club.' There's also much ribbing of New York newspapers, especially the New York Times ('might as well work for a bank,' one says), inside jokes from two authors who knew newspapers, Chicago and its Second City neuroses better than anyone.
For the play's first hour and forty-five minutes, a supporting cast of comic pros who portray hard-boiled reporters are mired in mostly expositional banter that goes in circles and stalls. John Goodman fares no better as a shifty sheriff and basically just relies on a high-pitched voice that's half as amusing as it's meant to be.
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1946 | Broadway |
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1986 | Broadway |
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2016 | Broadway |
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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