The Front Page: Another Over Star Stuffed Play
by Ross
I had my reservations about the show, The Front Page currently playing at the Broadhurst Theatre. Too much of how it was being marketed reminded me of It’s Only A Play a few years ago. That star studded Terrance McNally play that turned out to be the most non-funny comedy of the year; cringeworthy and a bit of a bore. But it was a financial success. Selling out, mainly because everyone wanted to see that cast, F. Murray Abraham, Matthew Broderick, Stockard Channing, Megan Mullally, Rupert Grint, Micah Stock, and headlined with that Broadway star, Nathan Lane. Lane is also getting top billing here in Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur’s The Front Page. Once again, he is being surrounded by a whole heap of well known stars; John Slattery, John Goodman, Jefferson Mays, Holland Taylor, Sherie Rene Scott and Robert Morse. All are playing a part in generating that same feverish buzz and excitement and in turn, selling a ton of tickets. And I was one of them who got pulled in.


As we slowly begin to fade into our seats as Act One drones on, we all kept telling ourselves, this is all information that we need to make Act Two and Three sing, so we refocus, pinch ourselves, and wait. Finally, in walks Hildy Johnson, the ace reporter from the Herald-Examiner who has just quit the profession to go off to NYC and ‘marry the girl’, and work in advertising (coincidentally he is played by Slattery of Mad Men fame). Things are slowly starting to get interesting with his entrance, and we also have the same response with the arrival of Mollie Malloy, played with a lot of heart and anger by the wonderful Scott. Her first scene feels awkward, like she’s trying for something different, but at least there’s a spark of specialness somewhere in there. I only wish she had more to do or at least more fun to have ( I do miss the feisty sexy Sherie from Everyday Rapture, Whorl Inside a Loop, Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown and hope to see her return to the stage soon in something a bit more fun). Same can be said for the other two females in the cast, Halley Feiffer (The House of Blue Leaves, Outer Critics Circle Award playwriting nomination for I’m Gonna Pray for You So Hard) as Hildy’s girl, Peggy Grant and Taylor (ANN), her talent completely wasted here, as Peggy’s mother. All political correctness aside (and boy, is that pushed aside) these girls and dames do get the short end of the stick here, in their
lines and in their direction. Only Scott manages to give us something closer to a fully realized character, surprisingly dark, but at least three dimensional. (Side note: the movie adaptation from 1940, My Girl Friday starred Rosalind Russell in the Hildy role, and Cary Grant as her newspaper boss and former husband, trying to win Hildy back both professionally and personally. Sounds like a good problem solver for this misogynistic comedy.)

[Speaking of politically incorrect, the words, insults, and labels tossed around in this play are sexist and racist; absolutely startling at times, and unnerving. This play takes place in a time of change in America, struggling with race issues and women’s rights. In some ways the play and this revival stay true to that moment in history, but even knowing that, it still makes certain phrases uncomfortable to hear being tossed around. That certain dangerous candidate would feel quite at home in this room of men, even though this isn’t as deplorable as his ‘locker room’. He might be as unwelcome back then as he is now.]

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