The Front Page NYC Reviews and Tickets

"Diverting. Pretty darn good. At moments, very funny indeed...But aside from those moments when Lane is all but setting fire to the stage, it is not the stuff of banner headlines...The problem is that in this production the dirt isn’t so much slung as spun, carefully and thoughtfully, so you can trace the arc of a joke before it lands. The show is pointedly and self-consciously funny, savoring its own raucous wit, which paradoxically means that it just isn’t as funny as it should be."
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"A 5,000-volt revival...Whipped into a hellacious comic frenzy by one of the best acting ensembles you and I may ever see. Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur’s 1928 evisceration of the newspaper racket is a summit of American screwball comedy...Director Jack O’Brien’s pedal-to-the-metal production is astonishingly true to the spirit and letter of the script...O’Brien’s pacing is masterful, guiding us from belly laughs to a sudden, sickening drop in our stomachs. What seals the deal is the acting."
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"A top-notch production...The slow build, like the play overall, is a masterpiece of construction, the kind that for a hundred reasons shouldn’t work today, but that under O’Brien’s nervy direction undeniably does...Often thought of as a wit or a clown, Lane is really a time bomb onstage, with no fuse and an infinite payload...But one of the very deep pleasures of 'The Front Page' is the chance it provides to watch a large ensemble of character actors do what they’re so good at."
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"O’Brien, who utilizes the best of what Broadway has to offer—a big stage, a solid budget, slick production values—has not only created a milieu in which the performers can shine; he allows them the space to establish their characterizations...It takes a director of O’Brien’s skill to keep all those hoops in the air without losing sight of the story, or of the internal lives of the characters...Although Scott has relatively few scenes, she does a lot to make the play we’re watching credible."
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"Even if not every element in director Jack O'Brien's lavishly cast production hits the mark, this deluxe Broadway revival nonetheless is crackling entertainment...But the play only really starts firing on all cylinders once Lane enters...Lane elevates everyone around him, including Slattery...The galvanizing force of Lane's performance erases any concerns about the production's unevenness."
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"The first act is both over-long and too broad. It’s flat where it should be fizzy...Barking arias of sarcastic, arsenic-laced insults, Lane is like a human defibrillator whose presence single-handedly puts the production back on course...But you’ll have to be patient waiting for Lane to arrive to really enjoy it...It’s smart, subversive, and seemingly timeless. Too bad that this time around it’s also an ensemble comedy that feels like a one-man show."
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"Drawing on a starry cast top-lined by Nathan Lane and John Slattery, Jack O’Brien directs an impeccable revival that delights in the tasteless vulgarity of that fabled era...The situation offers a variety of opportunities for farcical comedy, and if O’Brien missed any one of them, I failed to catch it. The production is as close to perfection as it comes...Count yourself lucky if you scored a seat. You won’t forget it."
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"Slack and lackluster, a case study in how to get a good play wrong. Given the high quality of the cast, it’s surprising how ineffective this 'Front Page' is...The biggest problem of all is that O’Brien has softened the tungsten-hard tone...O’Brien’s 'Front Page' is played for laughs, not truth, and that’s why it falls so flat...As for Lane, he’s great. Too great, really...Suddenly you see what was missing up to that point, and realize why you’d come close to nodding off mere minutes before."
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"Lane and Slattery fire on all cylinders...O’Brien is a master at choreographing big casts so that no role seems left out of the limelight...Remains a testament to casual racism and misogyny that makes me feel like a party pooper even to mention. Yet there it is in what’s essentially a wheezy plot whose main reason for continued life is the opportunity for two actors to strut and snap, crackle and pop, surrounded by a gang of experts in their craft."
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"The expertly seasoned revival of 'The Front Page' is a mischievous newspaper bundle of earthy delights...The production crackles with old-school comic smarts. Count among these primo farceurs a splendid director, O’Brien, who knows how to put an acting army 26 strong through the dizzying paces of Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur’s classic piece of Americana...With Lane leading the charge, this production offers as much fun as you’re ever likely to have courtesy of the First Amendment."
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"For one near-perfect third act of the old farcical school under the direction of Jack O'Brien, Lane delivered a sublimely funny tour de force...O'Brien's star-crusted revival starts out slow but reaches a boil precisely because it captures the addictiveness of newsgathering...'The Front Page' is always a fun play. But you don't normally get the benefit of Lane's readings...This was a great Chicago play by great Chicago writers, here performed by actors who understand."
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"Nathan Lane saves the day—and the play—again...The only thing wrong with Lane’s performance, which comes with his signature shtick, is that he doesn’t arrive earlier...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...Director Jack O’Brien’s production is handsomely gritty and well-dressed, but only really catches fire in the third act."
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"More often than not falls flat in spite of a boisterous atmosphere and heightened comedic tone...O’Brien’s lively and lavish production holds nothing back in terms of broad comedy and busy movement, 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...Lane steals the final third of the show."
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"Jack O'Brien's terrific production, featuring some two dozen of Broadway's best and brightest actors, transports us back to a time when men were loud, brash misogynist pigs; women were alternately dames, tarts or the marrying type. And nothing was politically correct...It takes a good hour before the plot kicks in. But fortunately the character actors are standouts - each one...O'Brien masterfully directed the physical humor in this over-caffeinated production. 'Front Page' is a winnah!"
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"Individually, they're all very funny, but their performances become cacophony in concert...O'Brien fails to bring harmony to the proceedings during the lethargic first act. The piece only really begins to come together after 90 minutes, when Lane enters with a show-stealing performance...The whole ensemble benefits from Lane's presence as the dialogue and slapstick significantly tighten...'The Front Page' takes a long time to warm up, but once it does, it proves worth the wait."
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"A terrific cast bangs out the gritty, wise-cracking dialogue of newspapermen turned playwrights Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur with the precision of freshly greased keys striking at the platen of a Royal typewriter...Lane is a master at finding the vocal inflections and cadences that discover humor without sacrificing realism and at one point he contributes a show-stopping bit of physical business...This is satisfying old-school, muscular comedy done right."
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"Most of the time, Lane sweeps the stage like a storm cell, stirring everyone and everything up in a gale of farcical action. But the act-and-a-half that precedes Burns' appearance on the scene has plenty to offer, too. The director has skimmed the cream of New York's talent pool, filling the stage with an A-team of character actors...Rarely have such brutally cynical doings been rendered with such a loving hand—and everyone makes a contribution to the overall effect."
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"O'Brien should have done more to elicit the life-threatening urgency under which these people operate; especially with Lane's scenes, but throughout, the stakes never, ever get high enough...As with any play as on-the-edge as this one, you have to buy into what's happening completely to fall in love with it, and only Slattery voices a cogent argument in favor of it...Wonderful as he is, though, Slattery alone is not enough to make this version of 'The Front Page' banner headline news."
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“Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur's ‘The Front Page’ remains the quintessential comedy about the tabloid newspaper racket. Jack O'Brien's production plays it safe while a more brazen and outrageous style might have obtained more laughs. The current revival with its many recognizable names and faces is still entertaining fun. And it does bring back to the Broadway stage the incomparable Nathan Lane in top form in an unforgettable role.”
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"A mega cast of names are the draw of the season under the watchful eye and superb direction of Jack O’Brien...The play has it all when it comes to political hacks and sleazy journalists (and is so very current in that respect) but misses greatly waiting till more than half the show is over before releasing the likes of Nathan Lane and his inimitable shtick...His performance is merciless and non-stop and every reason to see this farce, 'The Front Page.'"
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"Mr. O'Brien gives everyone a chance to have a standout moment or so. However, it's not until Nathan Lane's Editor Burns finally plants himself center stage that this production bursts into full-blown laugh-aloud mode...The enjoyable presentation and excellent performances notwithstanding, once you get over admiring the set and the costumes and listen to some of the insults and phone calls flying around the room, the rest of the first act and part of the second are a too dragged out setup."
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"The exchanges among the three principals are rich and pithy and often funny. They are also often so broad and predictable as to be eye-rolling. I’m not sure they are enough to keep you riveted for three acts, especially because you have to wait till act two to lay eyes on Nathan Lane...Lane—what’s left to say?...He plays Walter very broadly but nobody does broad better...This is a show with many good moments, but you do have to pay the piper with your patience."
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"A dozen big stars does not a hit make. It’s not terrible by any means, but it’s not a comedic triumph either. Directed by Tony Award-winning Jack O’Brien with a fast-paced bombastic style that only few can carry off, the play itself does the first disservice by taking a long time to get the ball rolling...We have to wait until the middle of Act Two before any fun arrives, and his name is Nathan Lane...It’s sad to see these fine actors that I adore stuck working so hard with so little reward."
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"The show’s appeal rest largely in its star turns, which often feel like cameos. Most performers get no more than a few minutes to strut their stuff, although some make the most of it...It is surprising how much of a slog this nearly three-hour production can be at times until Lane’s entrance, despite the presence of a battalion of talented character actors. Director Jack O’Brien is presenting a somewhat tamped down and cleaned up version of the script."
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"The ensemble just doesn’t click and the chemistry keeps act one at a snail's pace...It isn’t until Lane appears that the laughs roll and the show picks up its pace...Baker, Taylor, and Mayes all have stand-out moments...Slattery and Goodman are fine, but it is Nathan Lane who is back on Broadway and owning it...O’Brien directs this piece with love and affection to the era...It was nice to escape to a simpler time when corruption was blatant and we could laugh without being condemned."
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"The set is handsome, the dialogue sharp-witted, the cast an assemblage of some of New York’s finest character actors and big names including John Goodman. The style is vivid and almost expressionist in the way that conversations are layered over around each other...Yet the revival’s energy is something less than crackling and the enterprise might have seemed merely respectable were it not for the joyously disreputable Lane. He gives a performance that is both outsized and just the right size."
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"The first must-see Broadway offering of the season...Such fast-talking newsroom is orchestrated impeccably by O’Brien. What’s required of the audience is close attention to all that’s said... Lane finally does barrel through the upstage door...And then he unleashes the performance you’ve waited for. It is replete with an artillery of sly takes and withering looks, Lane’s innate sense of when to raise and when to lower the volume...O’Brien’s gorgeously etched presentation is as good as it gets."
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"This production, happily, fires on all cylinders...Those seven clowns are only the half of it. They are surrounded by some of the best comic character actors in captivity...If we seem to pay undue attention to the cast, it is in this case merited; 'The Front Page,' when done well, is a rapid-fire laugh-fest, and everyone contributes...O’Brien, Lane, Slattery, et al do well by Hecht and MacArthur, bringing today’s audiences a flavorfully blustery, quaintly blasphemous comic feast."
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"Nathan Lane manages to deliver a truly evil, unlovable Burns, who, of course, is always a delight to watch. But again, some uncredited writer got in the way of his portrayal, reworking the original text...The direction is stately when it needs to be raucous...But what’s 'The Front Page' without a dynamite Hildy Johnson? John Slattery‘s hedonistic 'Mad Men' boss was always that show’s greatest comic asset, but he shows none of that flair, timing, or panache here."
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"An uproariously funny Broadway staging that expertly captures the work and the period, thanks to a mighty cast, and director Jack O’Brien’s super-smart staging...Lane gives a tremendously funny performance...A host of other characters, all played to perfection, populate the play...One might pick at something here and there, but this is an ultra-successful production designed to keep audiences howling with laughter, a staging that does proper justice to the Hecht-MacArthur work of theater art."
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"Watching Act I, where endless, entirely credible exposition may find you dozing if you’ve had a drink with dinner, is like being a voyeur...To my mind, the call-out of the show has to be Jefferson Mays’s fabulously intricate portrayal of the Tribune reporter...The sum of its parts is not what it might be, leaving one disappointed. Director Jack O’Brien makes deft, painterly pictures with the large cast, but spends less time with particulars of characters that too often seem ill defined."
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"If you think of the new revival of Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur’s 'The Front Page' as an all-star baseball game, then Nathan Lane is the closing relief pitcher, hurling perfect comic strikes with every throw...Director Jack O’Brien has not given them the proper pacing for this frantic 1928 farce of foul-mouthed scandal-sheet scribblers cracking wise and chasing scoops in corrupt Chicago...They’re a strong team, but Lane is unquestionably a star among stars."
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"The much-anticipated, talent-stuffed revival has its amusing moments. Old-fashioned screwball plot points conscientiously pile up...O’Brien’s respectfully nostalgic valentine to old-time newspaper journalism could have been subtitled 'Waiting for Nathan'...When he finally comes onstage—menacing little mustache and flipper eyebrows ablaze—the writing actually seems funnier and the style feels fresher, less creaky."
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"It’s unfortunate that the play’s setting necessitates an all-white cast at a time when an ensemble this big without a single colored face glares like high beams in the opposite lane...Though the plot’s resonance with modern times is startlingly clear, this is borderline screwball comedy—the only balm here is that we’re laughing instead of banging our heads against our laptops. Don’t expect profound takeaways."
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"Through much of the evening, you miss the slam-bang pace of the most famous incarnation of 'The Front Page:' the great 1940 screwball-comedy film adaptation 'His Girl Friday.' And then Lane shows up and everything explodes into life...Lane has given many memorable performances, in such shows as 'The Producers' and the revivals of 'Guys and Dolls' and 'A Funny Thing,' but his show-saving charge to the rescue of 'The Front Page' is as impressive as any of them."
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"A swell revival of the frenetic comedy...Like the industry it satirizes, 'The Front Page' shows its age: The cast is jarringly lily white. Women are an afterthought...But, the pros in 'The Front Page' know how to manage the material and deliver an ink-stained good time. This is a period piece that hearkens back to a time when reporters carried flasks and an HR rep would be tossed out a window if she introduced a dialogue about harassment or proper workplace behavior."
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"It’s a beautifully constructed play, though it takes its time getting started...Burns and Johnson are played with great relish by Nathan Lane and John Slattery and you won’t find a better pair of sparring partners since Lunt and Fontanne...Under O’Brien’s controlled direction, this mob of distinguished players has been artfully arranged...Once we get through all the expository material in Act One, the play picks up speed and doesn’t quit until the very last perfect final scene."
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"How often does a non-musical play from 1928 land on Broadway largely intact and in smashing shape?...Three acts, nearly three hours, and a cast of more than two dozen. Not that it’s at all leisurely, what with director Jack O’Brien encouraging his stageful of cynical, amoral journalists to step on each other’s lines while racing to the phones or cheating one another at poker...The talk isn’t for short attention spans, but it’s darn good stage talk — authentically Twenties Chicago."
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"The 90-year-old farce is definitely showing wear and tear...Still, you could do a lot worse than this epic cast...Ultimately, whether you go for this 'Front Page' probably has much to do with your tolerance for the blockbuster approach to Broadway—whether you value flashy individual moments and big stars, or whether you prefer a more coherent and transporting experience. Coherent this production is not, but that hasn't yet stopped it from being the most buzzed-about show of the fall."
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"It feels a bit sleazy to watch this play now, a bit tone-deaf. Then Nathan Lane enters in Act II, and he's almost funny enough to smooth over the show's unfortunate dialogue. Sadly, the rest of the cast, except for Goodman, lacks his timing, and Lane just can't do it alone. There's much that director Jack O'Brien could have been done here — multi-racial casting. A female reporter or mayor...For 'The Front Page' to work in our contemporary era, it needs a rewrite."
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"The story line is interesting enough, but is verbose and way too long...Although 'The Front Page' is a comedy, it lacks a lot of humor. The humor arises in Mr. Lane’s antics...The story moves along and the performances are all fine and genuine. However, the main reason to see the show, Nathan Lane, doesn’t even enter until near the end of Act II...Lane entertains us with his high-strung mercurial speeches and manners and once he arrives, the play finally picks up speed and becomes enjoyable."
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"Versatile director Jack O’Brien keeps the rapid-fire dialogue and pell-mell pace comprehensible (I’ve seen productions of this when it’s not) but it’s really not entertaining until late in the second act when Walter Burns, Hildy’s editor and sidekick played by Nathan Lane, shows up. Lane does Nathan Lane, milking the audience for laughs, which he’s past-master of. Jefferson Mays as fussbudget reporter Bensinger had most of the laughs before Lane showed up."
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"Director Jack O'Brien is forced to fill almost 3 hours with action. The problem is, the characters are big, the acting is big, the set is big—the cast is big—but the material just doesn't measure up...Act I should be scrapped...Act II gets off to a good start, bogs down in the middle and goes out with a 'BANG'...Theatrically speaking, the comedy was top-notch—the assemblage of such fine actors are able to pull off the physical and over-the-top comedy."
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"The play has not aged well and may have you wondering why this 88-year-old needs another spin. Then Lane shows up deep into Act 2 in the nick of time...His dry humor and gift for physical comedy have never been more urgently needed...Director Jack O’Brien has not worked out all the kinks in a script that often sounds like a machine gun of words...Without Lane, there’s little reason for this revival. 'The Front Page' is a peek into an old, dead world and what is revealed is not very pretty."
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"Balancing 'The Front Page's' dark reality with its giddy fun is by no means easy, and Jack O'Brien's revival navigates somewhat nervously between the two elements...O'Brien's cast seems to have been directed to aim for the real, conveying the sense that its comic zest has been dampened a little...And then there's Lane. He has all the advantages...That he makes it all look so easy is an extra scoop of ice cream on this exceptionally bittersweet confection."
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"Unfortunately, male-heavy plays where women don't get big parts are still way too common on Broadway, so forgive me if I balk at seeing pin-up girls on the bathroom door and hearing women spoken of rudely...Slattery lights up the stage and is charismatic as the hard-working reporter. Mays is quite funny...Lane commands all attention and has the audience laughing...The play, with three acts and two intermissions, is just too cumbersome for Jack O'Brien to rein in."
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"Why Slattery was cast? The reason couldn’t have been that anyone would have thought he was right for the role...Slattery's worst moment comes when he swallows the play’s best line...Slattery seems perilously close to retirement age, which lessens his being so valuable to the newspaper...Exacerbating this flaw is the Peggy Grant that O’Brien cast is Halley Feiffer, not yet 32 and looking younger...Lane’s fine, although he could have added even more ferociousness than the ferocity he’s found."
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"How were all those stars in 'The Front Page?' The answer is they were great...So then, why does 'The Front Page' never feel like a great show? First, it is entirely too long...Second, 'The Front Page' is dated, very dated...The show finally comes to life when Nathan Lane and John Slattery are on stage together...Jack O’Brien does a fine job of directing 'The Front Page.' He gets excellent performances out of all the players, but at nearly 3 hours, it is a bit of a slog."
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"This unapologetically vulgar comedy was first produced in 1928, and its age is showing. Directed by Jack O’Brien, the star-studded cast is all white, mostly men and incredibly misogynistic…The reporters are brought to life in delightfully developed performances by a star-studded cast…The dated aspects of 'The Front Page' are frustrating…While 'The Front Page' is an entertaining night at the theatre, one hopes the audience does not forget what is happening outside."
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"We’re mainly bogged down with a cacophonous chorus of hacks, all rapid-fire wisecracks and insubstantial storytelling...The director, Jack O’Brien, proves a poor curator; Slattery feels barely integrated. Somewhere, O’Brien has lost the dark heart of this story. A woman leaps to her death from a balcony; we barely notice amid the laughs."
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