The Front Page NYC Reviews and Tickets
Show-Score Member Reviews (583)
See it if You love dramas from the 1920's with an awesome cast. The timing is impeccable with rapid dialogue that is performed flawlessly. Star power
Don't see it if You dislike the 1920's era; Smoking bothers you; You are tired of ensemble casts; You have trouble following fast-paced dialogue Read more
See it if you love a classic play performed by a who's who of Broadway stars about the newspaper industry in the 1920's. A trip down memory lane.
Don't see it if you don't like old fashion 3 act comedies about how newspapers reporters performed their jobs and their outlook on life in the 1920's.
See it if You love an all star cast and fast talking! John Slattery isn't bad to look at either
Don't see it if If you're in it for John Goodman - his part is very small.
See it if You want to see one of the biggest and best casts on Broadway starring in a Pulitzer Prize winner. The kind they don't make any more.
Don't see it if 3 hrs/2 intermissions isn't your cup of tea, even though it goes by like a freight train + plays faster than some 90 minute shows I've seen. Read more
See it if you like any of the stars in this show as they all do a great job. Interesting story and turn of events.
Don't see it if you are expecting it to be hilarious or light hearted.
See it if You like an outstanding name cast and you enjoy revivals.
Don't see it if You don't like revivals and fast paced dialogue which is sometimes difficult to hear because they speak over each other's lines.
See it if NATHAN Lane is the Star! He ups the notch on this play. It's a good old fashioned fast talking play about journalism. The rest is also good.
Don't see it if You like shorter plays
See it if you like great comedic acting by a first rate company, and a clever if somewhat dated book. Terrific production values.
Don't see it if you don't enjoy dated, slightly illogical, American comedies, and Nathan Lane et al who star in this fun evening.
Critic Reviews (50)
"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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"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 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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"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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"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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"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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"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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"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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