NEW YORK–Sarcasm lands fast and furious in “The Front Page,” a scintillating all-star Broadway revival that’s still amazingly topical. Newspapermen-turned-playwrights Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur penned the masterpiece that debuted in 1928, and today the biting satire on journalistic integrity is particularly apropos given that media coverage is now nonstop, that reporters compete to break a story or twist the truth to suit their narratives, and that people just don’t seem to trust the press anymore. This year’s election coverage comes to mind.
In 1928 Chicago, Earl Williams (John Magaro), a poor schmuck of an anarchist, is about to be hanged for killing an African-American police officer; that is, if another reprieve doesn’t keep him from the gallows. Williams’s death has been halted twice before.
