His Girl Friday

Old television stars don’t die; they go to the Guthrie. We greatly enjoyed Patrick Stewart onstage there a few years back. Now more big names from the small screen, Courtney B. Vance and Angela Bassett, star in His Girl Friday, which John Guare has adapted from both Hollywood’s screwball romance and the original play The Front Page. Real-life spouses Vance (of Law & Order fame) and Bassett (who, yes, is an accomplished film actress but has also appeared in The Cosby Show, Alias, the title role in The Rosa Parks Story, and a slew of other TV shows) play former spouses and fellow journalists in a thirties-era Chicago newsroom. The play manages to both savage the tabloid press and pay loving tribute to the tough-talking journalists of old, and all the fast talking and physical gags make it a performer’s dream—no wonder it’s a perennial favorite for revivals. 612-377-2224; www.guthrietheater.org