While experiencing Garson Kanin's old chestnut, Born Yesterday, at the Utah Shakespearean Festival, I could close my eyes and hear Judy Holliday, as Anne Newhall essayed a delightful characterization of Billie Dawn.
The play is set in 1946 in the plush sitting room of parvenu millionaire junk dealer Harry Brock's (Craig Spidle) suite in the swankiest hotel in Washington, D.C. Harry is accompanied by his entourage, including his beautiful but none- too-cultured girlfriend, Billie Dawn (Anne Newhall). Harry has come to D.C. to buy a senator, Norval Hedges (Richard Kinter) to assure passage of the Hedges-Keller Amendment, guaranteeing the State Department won't interfere with Brock's scheme to avoid tariffs and secure his ability to make a killing importing war scrap from Europe post WWII.
Harry, embarrassed by Billie's rough-hewn edges, hires newspaper reporter Paul Verrall (Kurt Ziskie) to "smarten her up." The scheme backfires on him as Billie proves to be an excellent student and a quick-study. When she catches on to what Harry is trying to accomplish, the ensuing results are nothing short of hilarious.
Born Yesterday has stood the test of over half-a-century, proving the more things change, the more they stay the same -- at least in the political arena. Newhall is a natural as the bright but uneducated Billie. Spidle's blustery Harry displays the perfect irony, as he exhibits the crude behavior which he so decries in Billie and can't see in himself. Ziskie is believably charming and sympathetic as Billie's mentor/suitor. Kinter is just right for the corrupt shlemiel, Senator Hedges. The entire supporting cast is excellent. Kathleen F. Conlin's directing gives the production the cohesiveness that makes it work without becoming a cliche.
That said, George Cukor's 1950 black-and-white film of Born Yesterday, starring Judy Holliday as Billie, Broderick Crawford as Harry, and Bill Holden as the handsome young reporter, remains the benchmark for this play.
