The Front Page

The singular setting for The Front Page is the press room at the Chicago Criminal Courts Building in 1928. The room is particularly abuzz with anticipation of the imminent execution of Earl Wilson, a white man and alleged Communist convicted of murdering a black police officer. Populating the room is a fraternal mob of old-fashioned newspaper reporters, each with a own colorful personality. Hildy Johnson, the cocky star reporter for the Herald Examiner, drives much of the play’s action as he struggles to walk away from the adrenaline rush of a big scoop. Drawing on their own experiences as Chicago reporters, Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur create a frenetic environment ripe with misogynistic and racist language (recent revivals have softened the play’s racial epithets). The play also taps into the underbelly of political corruption and still feels like a relevant examination of the collision between politics and old-fashioned journalism.