IN THE RIGHT ‘LANE’
It’s ‘Front Page’ news as Nathan rescues snoozer
STOP THE PRESSES: Nathan Lane saves the day — and the play — again.
Broadway’s famous comic ace is in his glory in “The Front Page,” playing the dogged tabloid editor Walter Burns. Like a shot of adrenaline laced with laughing gas, Lane jolts the lopsided and long-winded 1928 chestnut wide awake.
The only thing wrong with Lane’s performance, which comes with his signature shtick, is that he doesn’t arrive earlier in Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur’s classic comedy of Chicago newsmen, politics and a killer on the loose.
For the play’s first hour and 45 minutes, a supporting cast of comic pros who portray hard-boiled reporters are mired in mostly expositional banter that goes in circles and stalls.
John Goodman fares no better as a shifty sheriff and basically just relies on a high-pitched voice that’s half as amusing as it’s meant to be.
Three standouts are Micah Stock, who plays a dim-witted cop, Jefferson Mays, as a germophobic reporter, and Broadway veteran Robert Morse, who delights as a bedraggled process server who holds the key to the play’s finale.
John Slattery isn’t ideally cast as ace reporter Hildy Johnson, who’s trying to trade scoops for marriage. He gives an energetic performance, but except for an in-joke about Hildy going into advertising, his best moments come alongside Lane.
Director Jack O’Brien’s production is handsomely gritty and well-dressed, but only really catches fire in the third act.
“The Front Page” may be best left to high schools, where they can discover their own Nathan Lanes.