Born Yesterday revisits a different time
What: Born Yesterday Where: Roxy Theatre When: To June 11 Rating: Three stars (out of five)
In some ways, Garson Kanin’s 1946 play Born Yesterday seems as if it might have been born today.
It’s mostly the character of Harry Brock, hilariously played by Jacob Richmond in a new production by Blue Bridge Repertory Theatre. Dirty Harry is a vulgar, bullying, power-mad businessman (he made his fortune in the junk trade) whose life revolves around chasing the almighty buck. He views his girlfriend, Billie, as a glittering bauble and routinely threatens to fire his employees, whom he treats almost as slaves. Harry is visiting Washington, D.C. to buy off a politician or two — part of his unscrupulous quest for power and riches.
Sound familiar? All Harry needs is a “Make American Great Again” ball-cap.
Directed by Janet Munsil, this revival of Born Yesterday certainly has its moments. However, despite the prescient familiarity of Mr. Brock, the show — a comedy with dramatic elements — seems dated.
The main problem is the play’s central plot element: the Pygmalion-like re-education of Billie (Kassianni Austin). She is first presented as a scatterbrained chorus girl who’s so untaught and socially backward, even Harry finds her an embarrassment in social settings. To solve this, he enlists journalist Paul Verrall (Jonathan Mason) to give her the equivalent of a highschool/college education. And it turns out, to the amazement of all and perhaps even Billie as well, she’s not so dumb after all.
In 1946, such a narrative might have seemed pro-women and progressive. Seventy-one years later, our attitudes have changed vastly — this mansplained journey toward Billie’s emancipation seems just another patriarchal riff. Meanwhile (especially given the Machiavellian hijinx underway in the U.S.) the idealistic political views presented by Kanin seem less audacious and more of a given, almost bordering on the naive.
All of this conspires to reduce Born Yesterday’s narrative thrust. This was particularly true in the last half hour, which on Thursday night seemed slow and drawn-out.
Richmond has a knack for presenting larger-than-life characters who seem barely able to contain some sort of explosive rage disorder. This gives Harry Brock a certain welcome edge.
From the get-go, Richmond’s portrayal pushed close — but never dipped into — caricature. We meet Harry in his luxury hotel room, where he sits splayed on the sofa, legs spread wide, a pose that neatly sums up the character. He communicates through barked commands, such as “Butt out, will ya!” and “Billie, come down here a minute!” Sometimes, Richmond seems to channel a modern-day Jackie Gleason; we almost expected him to yell: “To the moon, Alice!”
This sense of over-the-top encourages us to view the Harry with a certain irony and detachment; we comprehend the him in a more complex way; he becomes more palatable and interesting to the contemporary audience.
Perhaps to modernize the character of Billie, Austin imbues her with a layer of eccentricity. In one scene, for instance, Billie mimicked her bellowing boyfriend with an oddball pantomime. I’m not sure this worked. Meanwhile, the actor’s curious accent suggests not as much New York street gal as an immigrant from some vaguely European country. Overall, there’s a sense Austin has yet to figure out the role. It’s problematic, given that the success of Born Yesterday rests on the actors playing Billie and Harry.
Paul Verrall, Billie’s illicit love interest, is something of a male ingenue, and as such, a less juicy role. The well cast Mason, a handsome bespectacled fellow, makes Verrall blandly likable. As with Billie, the character undergoes his own maturation — he’s ultimately able to stand up to larger-than-life Harry. On Thursday, this transformation might have been more strongly conveyed — it seemed rather arbitrary.
Fans of the old movie, starring Judy Holliday, might well enjoy revisiting Born Yesterday in its stage incarnation. Others will find the show, while offering its share of laughs, is rather fusty and old-fashioned.