BORN YESTERDAY Reviews

[LimelightMike]

Posted: 4/24/11 at 1:29am

Today is Easter Sunday, April 24, marking the official opening night of Born Yesterday, Garson Kanin's 1940s hit comedy about a rough-edged chorus girl named Billie Dawn, who refines herself in the context of a world of politics, greed and corruption, following previews that began March 31. Tony Award winner Doug Hughes (Doubt) directs the Cort's latest tenant.

Rising star Nina Arianda plays Billie, a character created on stage and film by Judy Holliday. Jim Belushi plays Harry Brock, the unsavory businessman-boyfriend who hires a journalist, Paul, played by Robert Sean Leonard to educate Billie.

The producers bill the 1946 comedy as the "timely story of a not-so-honest businessman and a not-so-dumb blonde out to 'capitalize' on everything Washington has to offer."

Frank Wood, Terry Beaver and Michael McGrath, Patricia Hodges, Fred Arsenault, Bill Christ, Jennifer Regan, Liv Rooth, Danny Rutigliano, Andrew Weems and Robert Emmet Lunney complete the cast.

Having had the pleasure of catching the final preview, I certainly wish this production the absolute! Will be happy to share my personal thoughts later.

Best to all involved!

[CockeyedOptimist2]

Posted: 4/24/11 at 1:59am

I can't wait to see this show and to see what the reviews are like. What a bummer that Jim Belushi's picture is in the BWW logo rather than the show logo or a picture of Nina Arianda.

[uncageg]

Posted: 4/24/11 at 2:13am

Saw the show the week before last and Nina rocks. A Tony nomination performance. I just hope the final act is tightened up and Belushi isn't still running out of steam in the 3rd act. He did the night I saw it.

[Noel&Cole]

Posted: 4/24/11 at 3:42pm

I loved this revival. In many ways I think it's the best revival of the season and was the happiest surprise. I hope it gets the reviews it deserves and I hope it grab a best revival nomination next week along with one for Nina.

[Ed_Mottershead]

Posted: 4/24/11 at 4:17pm

Noel, I'm not seeing it until end of May. Is it better than Importance of Being Earnest?

[Noel&Cole]

Posted: 4/24/11 at 4:40pm

I personally enjoyed it much more than Earnest. That's not to say it's better. Earnest was a great production. As a good a revival as BORN YESTERDAY. I just enjoyed BY as a play more. I thought it was topical and relevant to today's politics and world situation so it resonated more than Earnest. I also thought Nina Arianda's performance is not to be missed. She's going to be a huge star after tomorrow so I would suggest this.

However, Earnest is a great production as well although it is being filmed so I would go for BORN YESTERDAY. Just my opinion though.

[Ed_Mottershead]

Posted: 4/24/11 at 5:40pm

Noel, I saw Earnest very shortly into previews and was thoroughly enchanted. I've seen BY (last revival with Madeleine Kahn and Ed Asner) and it was not a good production -- pacing was awful. So I'm hoping this version will eclipse all memories of what I saw in 1989. I've always enjoyed the movie. Just as a point of useless trivia, there was a TV version back in the mid-50s with Mary Martin and, I believe, Paul Douglass. It was deinitely NOT Ms. Martin's cup of hemlock. I would assume there's a kinescope somewhere.

Updated On: 4/24/11 at 05:40 PM

[thismyshow]

Posted: 4/24/11 at 6:31pm

hoping it gets good reviews (havent seen it yet) but im afraid if it dosnt get really positive reviews born yesterday maybe just be dead tomorrow.....

[TheColorOfFlame]

Posted: 4/24/11 at 8:01pm

Backstage is a RAVE (the first of many, I predict):

"Having seen both Mary Martin and Madeline Kahn fail as Billie Dawn, I had come to the conclusion that Garson Kanin's "Born Yesterday" was too inextricably bound up with original star Judy Holliday's radiantly daffy persona to work without her. What a pleasure to discover I was wrong. The pugnacious Nina Arianda triumphantly makes the role her own, with perhaps just a gallant nod to Holliday's indelible performance, in director Doug Hughes' loving and intelligent revival at the Cort Theatre. Arianda is aided by comparably fine turns from co-stars Jim Belushi and Robert Sean Leonard, reminding us that the proceedings aren't just about Billie. Backed by a crackerjack supporting cast, the trio brings Kanin's comic engine of a play to clattering life."

http://www.backstage.com/bso/content_display/reviews/ny-theatre-reviews/e3id8278d8f821d5e1461cee3328def1c2d

Updated On: 4/24/11 at 08:01 PM

[After Eight]

Posted: 4/24/11 at 8:38pm

"I loved this revival. In many ways I think it's the best revival of the season and was the happiest surprise."

I too found it a pleasant surprise, since the play didn't come off too well in the last revival.

I hope it is well received and has a nice run.

[broadwayman17]

Posted: 4/24/11 at 8:40pm

EW: B
http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20364394_20484440,00.html

AMNY: 3.5
http://www.amny.com/urbanite-1.812039/theater-review-born-yesterday-3-5-stars-1.2836435

[bjh2114]

Posted: 4/24/11 at 9:07pm

Talkinbroadway is a RAVE (when was the last time THAT happened?):

"Nina Arianda’s performance as Billie Dawn, the deceptive ditz who’s the driving force of Garson Kanin’s comedy Born Yesterday, is not notable for being this young actress’s stunning New York debut. That came Off-Broadway last year, as Vanda in David Ives’s Venus in Fur. It is, however, important for proving that this glimmering performer is not merely a flash in the pan. With this sexy and sophisticated, and thoroughly different and completely disarming, performance, she reveals herself the kind of natural, and naturally gifted, stage actress we’re constantly told the theatre can no longer produce. Yet go to the Cort, where Doug Hughes’s revival of Kanin’s play just opened, and you’ll see that — as well as a whole lot more."

http://www.talkinbroadway.com/world/index.html

[TheColorOfFlame]

Posted: 4/24/11 at 9:32pm

Nina Arianda, meet my friend Tony.

[bjh2114]

Posted: 4/24/11 at 9:43pm

Faster Times is positive with a rave for Nina:

"There might be some irony in Nina Arianda, a virtual unknown, being the best thing about “Born Yesterday,” despite the draw of two popular performers, but it should not be a surprise: The play is built around the character, and the character demands somebody with great comic timing (check) who is both beautiful (check)… and intelligent. That she is a remarkable actress is most evident from the contrast between her performance as Billie and that of Vanda, the part she played in “Venus in Fur,” and surely become more obvious whatever her next role."

http://thefastertimes.com/newyorktheater/2011/04/24/born-yesterday-review/

[bjh2114]

Posted: 4/24/11 at 9:49pm

The beginning of the Newsday review is positive:

"The obvious purpose of reviving "Born Yesterday" is to make Nina Arianda, Off-Broadway's blazing new comet, into a great big Broadway star. A collateral benefit is to lure back Robert Sean Leonard, theater treasure, and introduce him to people who think they know everything about him from watching "House."
All that good stuff happens in Doug Hughes' larky, lavish, first-rate production of..."

http://www.newsday.com/entertainment/theater/born-yesterday-revival-has-stellar-cast-1.2836247

[bjh2114]

Posted: 4/24/11 at 10:05pm

Hollywood Reporter is positive:

The word was out about Arianda thanks to her head-turning debut Off-Broadway last season in Venus in Fur. But taking your first Broadway bow in a role inextricably linked to the great Judy Holliday requires moxie as well as talent. The relative newcomer proves she has both to spare in an enchanting turn that’s gutsy, hilarious and fully inhabited. Looking like Lady Gaga in ‘40s glamour-wear, and sounding like Cyndi Lauper, she brings both cool authority and a gangly, girlish presence that makes her as adept at physical comedy as she is with her inspired timing of Garson Kanin’s dialogue. It will be fascinating to watch where this gifted young actor’s career takes her.

Director Doug Hughes (Doubt) doesn’t try to goose the 1946 comedy with contemporary perspective. (Anyone who sat through the egregious 1993 screen remake with Melanie Griffith knows that updating this plot doesn’t work.) Instead, he lets the play stand on its own idealistic, mid-century terms in its certainty that honesty and Constitutional integrity will always win out over big-money muscle and corporate and political self-interest. Even if many in the audience are likely to roll their eyes and think, “Yeah, good luck with that,” it’s pleasurable to escape into the fantasy of less cynical times."

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/review/born-yesterday-theater-review-181735

[Blockhead24]

Posted: 4/24/11 at 10:10pm

Times is up
A piercing squawk ricochets around the theater, followed by bright peals of girlish giggling. In counterpoint comes a rumbling bellow at a volume requiring no help from the electronic listening devices that are almost as ubiquitous as cellphones in Broadway theaters.

But even the babel of fierce combat between the American theater’s definitive dumb blonde, Billie Dawn (Nina Arianda), and her abusive lover Harry Brock (Jim Belushi), cannot obscure the occasional sound of creaking at the Cort Theater, where a solid but inessential revival of Garson Kanin’s comedy “Born Yesterday” opened on Sunday night.

http://theater.nytimes.com/2011/04/25/theater/reviews/born-yesterday-with-jim-belushi-robert-sean-leonard-review.html?ref=theater

Updated On: 4/24/11 at 10:10 PM

[adamgreer]

Posted: 4/24/11 at 10:20pm

Isherwood again!

He's had a busy spring!

[theaterkid1015]

Posted: 4/24/11 at 10:24pm

I'm so over joyed to read the wonderful reviews for this truly wonderful production! Wishing BORN YESTERDAY a healthy run!

[bjh2114]

Posted: 4/24/11 at 10:27pm

Man Isherwood is such a downer.

[TheColorOfFlame]

Posted: 4/24/11 at 10:33pm

I know! I'm surprised he wasn't more charmed by Nina.

[bwayfan7000]

Posted: 4/24/11 at 10:38pm

Isherwood really is a buzzkill.

Anyway, with these reviews, I really wish I could figure out a way to see this. Let's hope it runs for a while!

[BroadwayChica]

Posted: 4/24/11 at 10:39pm

I have a feeling that if Brantley had reviewed the show, he would've creamed himself over Nina's performance. Oh well.

[bjh2114]

Posted: 4/24/11 at 10:41pm

AP is positive:

"Stupidity has never looked as smart as it does in the current revival of "Born Yesterday" on Broadway.

The decision to cast Nina Arianda as the bubbly, muddle-headed blonde in the classic Garson Kanin screwball comedy is a stroke of genius. In a difficult role, Arianda wins much more than the hearts of the two onstage rivals for her affection, played by Jim Belushi and Robert Sean Leonard."

http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/wireStory?id=13448720

[little_sally]

Posted: 4/24/11 at 10:46pm

I agree, BroadwayChica. I think Brantley would've raved about Arianda.