[NEohioPAL] BORN YESTERDAY is a blast at Actors' Summit -- CJN Review

[Thackaberr at aol.com]

‘Born Yesterday’ is a blast at Actors’ Summit 
Reviewed by: FRAN HELLER  Contributing Writer
 
I didn’t want it to end. 
That’s how much I was enjoying “Born  Yesterday,” at Actors’ Summit through 
May 18. In between the belly laughs,  Garson Kanin’s 1946 hit comedy about 
greed, power politics and democracy  American-style remains right on the money 
today.
 
The buoyant production, under the sharp-shooting direction of MaryJo  
Alexander, hits the bull’s-eye. Alexander’s staging, pacing and attention to  detail 
are brilliant. Add a superb cast whose comic timing is  pitch-perfect.
 
With a little help from World War II, Harry Brock has turned a junkyard  
business into an empire. Now Brock has descended upon the Washington scene,  
looking to become even richer and more powerful. With him is his mistress, the  
strikingly beautiful but profoundly dumb ex-chorus girl Billie Dawn. 
Worried  that Billie won’t mind her “P’s and Q’s” in D.C. society, Brock 
hires the young,  idealistic reporter Paul Verral to teach her the ABCs. More 
than educating her,  the two fall in love, and together they work to save the 
public from a political  swindle.
 
Alexander’s fast-paced production doesn’t miss a beat. The corny humor  
might not cut the mustard in a more sophisticated and jaded age, but never has  
such silliness been so much fun.
 
Indeed, the characters are broadly drawn and over the top, but this is an  
instance of the more, the merrier. These actors seem to be having as much fun as 
 the audience. It shows.
 
The play may be oozing left-leaning liberalism, but for this kindred  spirit, 
Paul’s wry comments struck me in the solar plexus: “When you live in  
Washington,” he reflects, “it’s enough to break your heart. You see a perfect  
piece of machinery, the democratic structure, and somebody’s always tampering  
with it and trying to make it hit the jackpot.”
 
The original Broadway show put Jewish playwright Garson Kanin and Jewish  
actress Judy Holliday (né Tuvim, which means “holiday” in Hebrew) on the map. It 
 was Holliday who created the archetypal “dumb blonde” from which all other  
impersonations have flowed. 
With her moon-shaped eyes fixed in a state of  sublime incomprehension, a 
voice like a siren, and her deadpan non-sequiturs,  the blonde-bewigged Alicia 
Kahn is Holliday reincarnated. It is not easy to play  dumb, but the actress 
does it to perfection.
 
Dressed in a pinstriped suit and outlandish tie, his fedora cocked to one  
side and a camel’s-hair coat draped over his beefy frame like some Hollywood  
gangster type, A. Neil Thackaberry bursts on the scene as the crass, self-made  
millionaire Harry Brock.
 
The two-story hotel suite (set design by Alexander), where Brock and his  
henchmen conspire to create an international cartel, has just the right touch of  
elegance.
 
Alexander’s directorial prowess gives the comedy its oomph. Note, for  
example, the card game in which a fulminating Brock and a cool Billie play gin  
rummy or how Brock struggles to lip-sync one of Billie’s books; both are gems of  
comic acting. Using real shaving cream in the short barber sketch is yet 
another  touch that adds pizzazz to this breezy production. 

Peter Voinovich is perfect as bespectacled journalist Paul Verral, who  
believes that democracy still stands a chance if only its citizens would take  
responsibility for it. Paul’s trenchant observation about the curse of  
civilization, “don’t care-ism,” which lets powerful people like Brock get what  they 
want, resonates in the present.
 
A bemused Dana Hart is the picture of cynicism as Brock’s boozy lawyer Jim  
Devery, a promising Harvard grad who sold out and has been hiding behind a haze 
 of alcohol and sarcasm ever since. Daniel H. Taylor is a shoo-in as the  
spineless Eddie, Brock’s kin, bodyguard and a doormat who responds to Harry’s  
barking like a lap dog.
 
In brief but indelible performances, Steve Ryan is true to type as the  
pliable, lily-livered Senator Hedges; Linda Ryan’s visible consternation as the  
flummoxed Mrs. Hedges is priceless. Jocelyn Roueiheb fills the bill as the maid  
Helen, and Scott Thomas does the same for the bellboy/barber.
 
The only thing outshining Alexander as director is Alexander as costume  
designer; she provides a mouthwatering parade of outfits for Billie, from a  
fur-trimmed cocoa-colored sheath and flowing white peignoir, to gray plaid  suiting 
and a wrap skirt draped like a peacock’s tail. All yummy. 

In a strong season for Actors’ Summit with such notable shows as  “Proof” 
and “Golda’s Balcony,” this production of “Born Yesterday” joins ranks  with 
the best of them. 
 
 



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