DARRYL MAXIMILIAN ROBINSON APPEARS AS BENSINGER IN CCTP'S 2024 STAGE REVIVAL OF "THE FRONT PAGE"!
ON THE WEST COAST, theatregoers have seen veteran and award-winning Chicago-born and stage-trained actor Darryl Maximilian Robinson appear in numerous roles onstage during his 14 years as a City of Angels thespian. He has garnered critical praise for his performances as Major-General Stanley in "The Pirates of Penzance," District Attorney Flint in "Night of January 16th," Booker T. Washington in "Ragtime," Butler John Lawless in "The Happiest Millionaire" and Henry Albertson in "The Fantasticks." But the 2022 Making The World Happening Award Winner for his numerous online theatre-related offerings at Allevents.in usually has performed his work in small and intimate venues. However, this summer, he will be sharing his talents in a somewhat larger forum.
At 2:30 pm on Saturday and Sunday Afternoons from July 13th through August 4th of 2024, veteran and award-winning stage actor and play director Darryl Maximilian Robinson will make his theatre debut and appear as Chicago Tribune News Reporter Roy V. Bensinger in The 2024 Culver City Public Theatre outdoor stage production of Ben Hecht's and Charles MacArthur's classic comedy "The Front Page" at Dr. Paul Carlson Memorial Park in Culver City, and Admission Is Absolutely Free.
Currently celebrating 50 years as an American Stage Performer ( with involvement in over 250 live theatre and literary arts presentations around the country ), Darryl Maximilian Robinson, The Founder, Artistic Director and Producer of both the multiracial theatre groups The Excaliber Shakespeare Company of Chicago and The Excaliber Shakespeare Company Los Angeles Archival Project, was recently delighted and thrilled to be cast in the well-written, comedic supporting role of the extremely tidy, fussy, poetry-spewing, hypochondriac Chicago Tribune Feature News Reporter Roy V. Bensinger in the 2024 Culver City Public Theatre new revival production of the 1928 classic comedy by former real-life Chicago News Reporters Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur, "The Front Page," which in this new stage adaptation has been cleverly blended with the 1941 female revision screenplay of "His Girl Friday" by Charles Lederer.
Both the original late 1920s stage play and the early 1940s film script addressed the same issue: the epic comic battle of wits between the influential newspaper editor and publisher Walter Burns and his #1 newspaper reporter Hildy Johnson, who desperately wants out of the news reporting business in order to get married, settle down and have a normal life, and who the unscrupulous Burns desperately wants to keep in the newspaper business at all costs.
In the acclaimed 1928 play, Hildy, first played by a male actor, wanted to run off and elope with his lovely female intended. This was a plan Burns wrecked with unrelenting deception and sabotage.
In the 1941 classic movie, a female incarnation of Hildy, played by the late, great Oscar-nominated Rosalind Russell, had the misfortune of previously marrying Burns, played by the late, great Cary Grant, who was determined to derail her upcoming marriage and honeymoon to her new man, Bruce Baldwin, an insurance agent, and whom Burns correctly claimed bore an incredible resemblance to the late, great Ralph Bellamy.
This romantic, screwball comedy all takes place in the raucous confines of The Press Room of A City Jail on the eve of the execution of a condemned man, Earl Williams, who may or not be altogether sane or altogether a radical.
And when Williams shoots a renowned psychologist ( sent to examine him ) with the sheriff of the town's own gun and subsequently escapes, just days before a major city election, a media frenzy amongst the reporters breaks loose, and Burns uses every trick in the book to keep Hildy covering the story.
The Culver City Public Theatre new stage revival of "The Front Page," which has been effectively adapted and directed by local LA theatre veteran Trace Oakley, highlights many elements of both the original 1928 play and 1941 film, and features a full company of talented and versatile actors led by Rizzy Fuentes as Walter Burns, Tanya Laine as Hildy Johnson and Philip Rossi as Bruce Baldwin.
Other skilled performers featured in "The Front Page" include: Danielle Fraser as Endicott, Tamara Koltes as Molly Malloy, Steven Milner as Sheriff Hartman, Eric Billitzer doubling as Dr. Max J. Eglehofffer and The Mayor, Alicia Sterling Beach as McCue , Ted Burke as Diamond Louie , Phoenix Ever as Wilson, Rory McLaverty as Schwartz, Lynda Palmer as Mrs. Baldwin, Roderick Walker as Murphy and Tae Ho Yoon doubling as Gus and Earl Williams. "The Front Page" Adapter and Director Trace Oakley will appear in the role of Mr. Pinkus.
Winner of both a 1997 Chicago Joseph Jefferson Citation Award for Outstanding Actor In A Principal Role In A Play and a 1997 Chicago Black Theatre Alliance / Ira Aldridge Award nomination for Best Leading Actor In A Play for his critically-praised performance as Sam Semela in The Excaliber Shakespeare Company of Chicago revival staging of Athol Fugard's "Master Harold And The Boys" as well as a 1998 WKKC Radio Chicago Critic's Corner Fine Arts Award for Outstanding Director of A Play for his noted revival of Samuel Beckett's "Waiting For Godot" ( in which he appeared as Vladimir ), Darryl
Maximilian Robinson in his supporting role as Chicago Tribune News Reporter Roy V. Bensinger ( a role played most memorably by the late, great 1930s and 1940s comic film character actor Edward Everett Horton in the 1931 Oscar-nominated Best Picture version of "The Front Page" ) is the sole Chicago-born and stage-trained actor in the gifted and diverse cast of The Culver City Public Theatre 2024 revival of "The Front Page."
For further info on seeing veteran stage actor and play director Darryl Maximilian Robinson as News Reporter Roy V. Besinger in the 2024 Culver City Public Theatre Free Theatre-In-The-Park revival of the classic comedy "The Front Page" visit The Culver City Public Theatre website.
All 2024 Publicity Photos of The Culver City PublicTheatre Revival Production of "The Front Page" by Kelsey Danzeisen.
2024 Culver City Public Theatre Costume Design for "The Front Page" by Sophia April Grose.
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