PJ Powers/Photo: Lara Goetsch
RECOMMENDED
In the first act of “The Front Page, ” one of the fast-talking newspapermen condemns his own kind as “a cross between a bootlegger and a whore.” The depiction of reporters as salty, drunken rascals is a huge indicator of how unfamiliar the golden age of newspapers can be to today’s audiences. With the iPad, blogs and Twitter overtaking print journalism, the typical reporter is, well, anyone with internet access. Playwrights Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur wrote the play at a time when the editor’s controversial voice was the reason you picked it up, and TimeLine sells its own production on the strength of its personalities too.
Artistic Director PJ Powers plays Hildy Johnson, ace reporter for a leading Chicago paper whose resignation happens to coincide with the contentious, scheduled hanging of a man convicted of murdering a black policeman. But when things go wrong, they go really wrong, and it’s a testament to the bottomless energy of the huge Powers-led cast that the freight-train plot never loses momentum or derails. Collette Pollard’s set immerses the audience in a close replica of a 1920s Chicago press room, Lindsey Pate’s costumes pop, and Nick Bowling’s direction makes short work of two-and-a-half hours’ worth of gallows humor. (Neal Ryan Shaw)
At TimeLine Theatre Company, 615 West Wellington, (773)281-8463. Through July 17.
Related Stories
All Quiet, No Front: A Review of All Quiet on the Western Front at Red Tape Theatre In an effort to bring its subject into the twenty-first century, this stylized adaptation of Erich Maria Remarque's 1928 novel loses much of the original's austere power.
A Woman's World: A Review of The Audience at TimeLine Theatre Company “The Audience” is a play centered around a series of weekly conversations between Queen Elizabeth II (Janet Ulrich Brooks) and her twelve prime ministers at Buckingham Palace
How Far to Hope: A Review of Oslo at TimeLine Theatre Company and Broadway In Chicago J.T. Rogers’ Tony-Award winning play about the back-channel negotiations of the Oslo Accords in 1993 isn’t naive about its subject but nevertheless contains a glimmer of hope.
It Takes Time To Be A Man: A Review of Boy at TimeLine Theatre Company TimeLine Theatre Company's poignant drama addresses the limitations and repercussions of our culture's limited perception of gender.
Broken Keys: A Review of Cardboard Piano at TimeLine Theatre Company What is broken and what can be fixed are essential and uneasy questions in this local premiere from playwright Hansol Jung.
Weight in Soul: A Review of Too Heavy For Your Pocket at TimeLine Theatre Company A new play from Jiréh Breon Holder moves the needle forward on what theater is capable of.
