Better than ever: Northlight’s fiercely funny ‘The Front Page’ marks triumphant Evanston return

“The Front Page” ― 4 stars

Describing Northlight Theatre’s premiere of “The Front Page” in its chic new Evanston home poses some challenges. For starters, there’s the matter of coming up with superlatives that do justice to director BJ Jones’ exceptional production of Jeffrey Hatcher’s adaptation.

Where does one start?

At the source, of course: Chicago journalists Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur based the sharp-elbowed, quasi-ethical characters in their 1928 play on real people — the reporters and editors, lawmen and politicos, prisoners and prostitutes — who inhabited the Chicago Nelson Algren later described as a “city on the make.”

A screwball comedy rooted in social satire, “The Front Page” is of its era and of the moment, a point Hatcher makes clear in his streamlined (running a little under two hours including intermission), unabashedly acerbic, fiercely funny adaptation. The issues this period piece addresses (and critiques) — ethics, ambition, sensationalism, corruption and manipulation — remain as relevant today as they did 98 years ago when the play premiered.

Then there’s the prodigiously talented quartet responsible for the play’s design. The backdrop of Jeffrey D. Kmiec’s wonderfully lived-in set re-creates the arch above the entrance to the original Criminal Courts Building at 54 W. Hubbard St. The press room, where the action unfolds, has soaring windows, dingy walls and stacks of newspapers. Manual and candlestick telephones sit atop a long, cluttered table around which craggy reporters wearing rumpled clothes (the spot-on period costumes are by Izumi Inaba) periodically interrupt their card game to call their editors.

Sound designer Andre Pluess’ soundscape ranges from commonplace — the rumbling of an elevated train, hammering by construction workers building a scaffold for the prisoner sentenced to hang, the occasional blaring fire alarm — to chaotic in the form of gunshots and explosions accompanied by lighting designer JR Lederle’s piercing searchlights.

As for the cast, most of them Northlight veterans, Jones and casting director Claire Simon have assembled a constellation of Chicago theater luminaries.

Kate Fry plays ace reporter Hildy Johnson, the only woman in an all-male gaggle whose beat is crime: organized and otherwise.

McCue (a casually discerning Joe Dempsey) and Endicott (Guy Van Swearingen) are the seen-it-all, elder fourth estatesmen; the banjo-playing Kruger (Kelan M. Smith) is their younger counterpart; and Bensinger (Mark David Kaplan) is a persnickety aspiring poet. They’re gathered in the press room awaiting details about the imminent execution of the hapless, possibly insane Earl Williams (John Drea). A self-described anarchist, Earl was convicted of killing a Black police officer and sentenced to hang, which distresses Earl’s only friend, good-hearted Mollie Malloy (Rae Gray).

Hildy shows up to bid her colleagues farewell. She announces she’s quitting journalism to marry Brad Hefflefinger (an unfailingly decent Peter Moore), a Buffalo, New York, accountant, and they’re taking a late-night train to New York City.

Until Earl Williams’ jailbreak — unwittingly facilitated by the mayor’s corrupt flunkie Sheriff Hartman (William Dick in fine comedic form) — upends her plans. Her passion reignited, Hildy pursues the story, with encouragement from editor and former lover Walter Burns (Timothy Edward Kane, Fry’s real-life husband), who shows up not only to manage the mayhem but also to keep his star reporter from leaving the biz, or him ― maybe both.

Peripheral characters providing additional comic relief include Brad’s overbearing mother (Cindy Gold), the unscrupulous mayor (an elegantly menacing John Lister) and the governor’s lackey Pincus (Tim Kazurinsky in a most Tim Kazurinsky-like cameo).

The delightfully compatible Fry and Kane anchor a praiseworthy ensemble that, under Jones’ refined, well-timed direction, delivers performances at once carefully etched and comically broad.

Jones and his cast keep the audience guessing as to the motives of these characters. Unapologetically self-interested and self-absorbed (with the exception of Moore’s surprisingly insightful Brad), they also exhibit fleeting flashes of empathy. We read regret on the faces of the male reporters over their harsh treatment of Mollie. We watch Kane’s Walter begrudgingly concede romantic defeat. We see Fry’s driven Hildy suspend her pursuit of a scoop to search for her fiancé’s mother.

The performances suggest compassionate calculation. Or is it calculating compassion? Either way, it’s a wonderfully ambiguous undercurrent to this exceptionally funny production marking Northlight’s return to the city where it was founded 50 years ago.

Kudos all, and welcome home.

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Location: Northlight Theatre, 1012 Church St., Evanston, (847) 563-8400, northlight.org

Showtimes: 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, and 2 and 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday through Oct. 25

Tickets: Tickets start at $50

Running time: One hour 45 minutes, with intermission

Parking: Some street parking; free parking with validation at a nearby public garage

Rating: For teens and older; includes sexual innuendo, references violence