Rumor has it that Garson Kanin got gag-writing suggestions from George S. Kaufman for Born Yesterday. In any case, the comedy, Kanin's most successful, has become a recognized classic, fairly crackling with witticisms and endlessly timely in its political satire. Its only problem is the popularity of the 1950 film which preserves Judy Holliday's incomparable, award-winning performance as Billie Dawn: inevitably, actresses following her in the role get compared to Holliday as often as actors playing the King in The King and I are compared to Yul Brynner. So for the record, Deborah Hay's sparkling version of the brightest dumb blonde in dramatic literature is a miracle of comic timing and lovable nature that takes second place to no one. Her Billie has a steel will under her endearing vulnerability that may be more visible than usual in the role, perhaps because she is less a diamond in the rough than just an obvious diamond -- shiny, gorgeous, and not to be ignored.
Still, much of the delight in this comedy is Billie's own delight at the opening up of her mind and her surprised recognition of her own worth. Starting with her gin game, we can see that spirit and question before she does whether anyone in sight can properly look down on Harry the Junkman's gaudily garbed mistress.
Thom Marriott is younger and better looking than most of the Harry Brocks I've seen, and brings comic perspective even to Harry's rages and bullying, as well as believably showing his affection for Billie. But perhaps even more than for his frustrated brutal slapping her, which always shocks the audience, Harry loses all our regard because he cannot appreciate what we all are coming to love Billy for -- her innately bright, decent spirit. Paul Verrall, Billy's tutor and transformer, is a colorless good-guy role, safe as a boyfriend to care for Billie but never threatening to share her spotlight, and Gray Powell's Paul fits that description likably. Lorne Kennedy's wry, buyable Senator Hedges is equally likable despite the Senator's growing corruption. And Patrick Galligan has a scenery-chewing feast of worm-turning as Harry's law-bending advisor, a former distinguished legal authority.
The production is opulent and even visually witty with economically telling designs by Sue LePage (nifty clothing and a palatial, three-story Washington, DC hotel suite). Alan Brodie's lighting usually enhances the handsome stage pictures but, when needed to, emphasizes the farcical action. I expect this production to sell out: it is an unalloyed delight.
