Windy City is a 1982musical with a book and lyrics byDick Vosburgh and music byTony Macaulay. It is based on the 1928 playThe Front Page byBen Hecht andCharles MacArthur.
Set in 1929, the story focuses on ace reporter Hildy Johnson, who has just quit his job at theChicago Examiner to marry his fiancée Esther Stone and write screenplays for her movie mogul father, much to the dismay of unscrupulous and cantankerous editor Walter Burns. When streetwalker Mollie Malloy, girlfriend of escaped condemned killer Earl Williams, reveals to Hildy he has secreted himself in arolltop desk in the courthouse, Hildy cannot resist the lure of writing what could be the biggest scoop of his journalistic career before he boards the train for the West Coast.
Windy City had its world premiere at theBristol Hippodrome in June 1982 before opening in theWest End on July 20 at theVictoria Palace, where it closed on February 26, 1983 after 250 performances. Directed byPeter Wood, the cast includedDennis Waterman as Hildy Johnson,Anton Rodgers as Walter Burns,Amanda Redman as Esther Stone,Robert Longden as Earl Williams,Diane Langton as Mollie Malloy, andVictor Spinetti as poetic reporter Bensinger.
In the United States,Windy City was staged at theMarriott Theatre inLincolnshire, Illinois from February 2 through April 22, 1984, and was remounted at the Marriott in the early 1990s.[1]
A production staged at thePaper Mill Playhouse inMillburn, New Jersey in September 1985 starredRon Holgate as Walter Burns,Gary Sandy as Hildy Johnson,Judy Kaye as Mollie Malloy, andAlan Sues as Bensinger. In his review inThe New York Times,Alvin Klein observed, "Dick Vosburgh's mediocre book and mundane lyrics, replete with contrived rhymes that make no sense whatever, and Tony Macaulay's forgettable score are stuck in standard musical comedy mold. The jagged edge of the journalist's world eludes them. The adapters aim for the heart when they should be going for the jugular. The tough center of the plot is diluted, and the effect is something like having to settle forskim milk when one wants a drink with a kick . . . One wonders about the intent of an enterprise likeWindy City. What is its tone? Is it supposed to be a spoof? An affectionate recreation? Either way, it has gone askew."[2]
Anotherregional theatre production, starring David Elder andPaul Schoeffler, was staged at theWalnut Street Theatre inPhiladelphia from September 5 through October 22, 2006.[3][4]
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