"HIS GIRL FRIDAY" SPARKLES WITH WIT AND WILD WAYS

At a time when women were rare in the newsroom, at the eve of World War II, Hildy Johnson has enjoyed a reputation as an ace reporter at the famed newspaper the Chicago Daily Record.  She was married and divorced from the editor, the hard-boiled Walter Burns, but now she is abandoning both the man and the manic machinations to marry a mild-mannered life insurance tycoon Bruce Baldwin and leave the frantic excitement way behind.

The Connecticut Repertory Theatre has created an elegant newsroom set, thanks to the design work of Posy Knight, the press room of the Criminal Courts Building, upon which to set the screwball comic hit "His Girl Friday," adapted by John Guare from the original Cary Grant/Rosalind Russell movie by Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur.  Until Sunday, March 10,head to the Nafe Katter Theatre on the campus of the University of Connecticut to be wildly entertained.

When Hildy Johnson, played by a vivacious Olivia Saccomanno, enters the press room to bid farewell to her colleagues and her ex-husband Walter, portrayed by a smart and conniving Christopher Hirsh, she finds everyone poised to cover an execution:  convicted murderer Earl Holub (Darek Burkowski)
is scheduled to die.

When Holub escapes, possibly with the aid of his girlfriend Mollie (Khetanya Henderson) or the ineptitude of the sheriff (Thomas Brazzle), Hildy finds herself catching the scoop of a lifetime:  an interview with the killer.  She quickly forgets Bruce (Kevin Crouch), his mother (Penny Benson) and her plans to take the train to Albany for her wedding.  Chicago politics in the corrupt hands of the Mayor (Anthony J. Goes) and the upcoming elections that are rigged add to the frantic fray as Hildy and Walter reunite to do what they do best: get the story.  Dale AJ Rose as director keeps the pace fast and furious and, most of all, fun.

For tickets ($6-30), call the Connecticut Repertory Theatre at 860-486-2113.  Performances are Wednesday and Thursday at 7:30 p.m., Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m.

Follow the action as Hildy once again puts paper in her Underwood typewriter and composes the expose of a lifetime.