I can’t think of a more joyful way for Northlight Theatre to start its second half century and mark its return to its original home in Evanston after decades away than by inaugurating its brand-new theater with the world premiere of a new adaptation by Jeffrey Hatcher of Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur’s “The Front Page.” Add an ensemble of more than a dozen top Chicago actors directed with heart and humor by Northlight’s longtime artistic director BJ Jones and spot-on design that takes advantage of state-of-the-art facilities, and the result is two thoroughly delightful hours of theater.
And that is putting aside the fact that the original play, first produced on Broadway in 1928, has become a little creaky over time. It may have popularized the image of newspaper reporters as hard-boiled, fast-talking, alcohol-swilling guys who would do anything to get the story, but it made that image a cliché, too.
Also, Hecht and MacArthur, both reporters themselves, were satirizing specific colleagues no one remembers today, though history buffs may be familiar with real-life corrupt politicians like William Hale Thompson, the model for the mayor (John Lister).
Furthermore, anyone familiar with the play has probably read that Earl Williams (John Drea), who escapes on the eve of being hanged for killing a cop, is loosely based on “Terrible” Tommy O’Connor and possibly Thomas Mooney, a radical leftist sentenced to death on the basis of false evidence.
Hatcher’s adaptation takes its cue from “His Girl Friday,” the 1940 Howard Hawks movie starring Rosalind Russell as ace reporter Hildy Johnson and Cary Grant as Walter Burns, her editor and ex-husband. Hatcher makes Hildy (Kate Fry) a woman and suggests she and Burns (Fry’s real-life husband Timothy Edward Kane) may have had a past affair, but the romantic comedy is lower key than in the film.
Hildy comes to the Chicago Criminal Courts Building press room (impeccably designed by Jeff Kmiec) just to say goodbye because she’s quitting journalism to marry Brad Hefflefinger (Peter Moore) and move to Buffalo. She’s drawn into the fray by Earl’s imminent hanging and the arrival of streetwalker Mollie Malloy (Rae Gray), who pleads his case and is treated rudely by the male reporters. Burns doesn’t show up to take control until the end of act one.
Then, of course, everything Burns does is a manipulation, from the high-handed way he dispatches Brad’s mother, Mrs. Hefflefinger (Cindy Gold), to his efforts to steamroll Hildy. Hatcher seems to give the women a bit more agency, and I think he’s excised the political racism as well as cleaning up the language a bit. He makes the script more timely, but that’s not necessarily an improvement.
Beyond the sparring between Fry’s Hildy and Kane’s Burns, which strikes just the right notes, there are memorable mini-portraits of some of the minor characters. Mark David Kaplan stands out among the journalists as the fastidious Bensinger from the Tribune. Gray makes Mollie Malloy entirely sympathetic. Most hilarious of all is Tim Kazurinsky as Pincus, the messenger from the governor who decides he won’t take a bribe from the mayor and Sheriff Hartman (William Dick). The sheriff’s underlings, hilariously, are also named Hartman.
JR Lederle’s lighting and Andre Pluess’s sound design really bring the detailed set to life. Izumi Inaba’s costumes suit the late 1920s period, but I admit I loved Rosalind Russell’s 1940-ish suits and hats in the film.
“The Front Page” gets Northlight’s new era off to a fine start. May the news always be this good.
Source: www.hpherald.com
