Last night Maria and I were the guests of our friends Carl and Carolyn for a Milwaukee Repertory performance of “Born Yesterday”. The Broadway play was written by the legendary Garson Kanin and opened on Broadway in 1946. The original film was done in 1950 starred Judy Holiday, William Holden and Broderick Crawford. A later remake was released with Don Johnson, Melanie Griffith, and John Goodman.
The great role in this play is the dumb blonde, Billie Dawn, girl friend of wanta-be power broker and thug Harry Brock. Billie, played by Deborah Staples, was both silly and compellingly lovable. She is a former chorus girl and the companion to the selfish, greedy and inconsiderate Harry. As Harry begins to rise in power and influence among the Washington elite, he realizes that Billie is not an asset. Her lack of grace, manners and conversation skills is a problem. He hires a young journalist to “educate” her and smooth out her edges.
The young journalist falls in love with Billie. Because of his desire to spend time with her, he takes his job seriously and perks up her limited but plucky intellect. Billie begins to see life through new eyes and realizes that she is just a tool in Harry’s box of tricks and that in fact he has put her into jeopardy but putting her name on a number of his shady business deals.
The good guys win in the end as the pugnacious Harry spends the last moments of this play sitting on the stage in a state of shock after his confrontation with the young lovers blows up in his face and Billie turns the tables on him. The play’s dialogue is dated and the outcome is pretty predictable, but the theme is timeless and everyone is happy when love conquers all
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