BORN YESTERDAY Reviews

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!

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.

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

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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.

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

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

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

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

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Nina Arianda, meet my friend Tony.

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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

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

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

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

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

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

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