"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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"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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"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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"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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