Review: Theatreworks' BORN YESTERDAY

Born Yesterday, first performed in 1946, is a story that focuses on political corruption, corporate interests twisting the democratic process for their own ends, agenda-driven journalists, and a call to shed one's apathy and take control of a government that, ideally, exists to serve us all. The more things change.

But Garson Kanin's play, now in production at Theatreworks, is first and foremost about a woman's discovery of her own potential and self-worth beyond the role others have prescribed for her. When we first meet Billie Dawn (Carley Cornelius) she is the model of the chorus girl/mob girlfriend stereotype: bleach-blonde, sharp-voiced, tactless, classless, and willfully stupid. She's not just unintelligent and uninformed, she's content to be so--having attained the wealth and security she desires, she doesn't reach for more. So what if her sugar daddy Harry Brock (Thomas Borillo) is a crooked junk dealer trying to bribe his way to success in Washington DC and who treats her like a servant, expected to look good and shut up when he tells her to? She has what she wants--mink coats, abundant booze, the most lavish Capitol Hill hotel suite that David M. Barber could devise--the rest doesn't matter. Billie gives little because little is expected of her, at least until her crass attitude embarrasses Brock while he's trying to woo senators to his cause.

Brook is rather crude and unpolished himself, but sees only the speck in Billie's eye and arranges for reporter Paul Vaerrall (Michael Gonring) to play Henry Higgins to Billie's Eliza and inclucate her with a little sophistication. The ploy works rather too well. Billie doesn't just start learning, she starts thinking--she starts to question Brock's dealings and her life with him, actions perceived as threatening by a man who likes to have his own way no questions asked. Tellingly, Brock is happy to have Billie learn when it's for his own benefit, but turns on the idea the minute she starts using it for her own.

As she did with Venus in Furs' Vanda, Cornelius does a stunning job of creating a character who is much more complex than she first appears on the surface. Early on, she reveals hints of the quick, sensitive mind lurking behind Billie's brazen dumb-blonde attitude (she beats Brock at gin rummy without even working up a sweat). She also has charming chemistry with Gonring's idealistic, intellectual Paul. Borrillo's Brock blusters and bellows through the scene, demanding attention like the bully that he is. He sees himself as a model of the American self-made man, but is in truth a crooked sociopath who ranks everybody's value in dollars. Surrounding this central triangle is a strong ensemble of hangers-on and hotel staff, particularly Joel Leffert as Brock's sleazy, soused lawyer, who had ideals once upon a time--and might again.

With an election year upcoming, it's good to see a play that reminds us of the power of an informed individual. BORN YESTERDAY plays at the Dusty Loo Bon Vivant Theater now through December 24th, Wednesdays through Saturdays at 7:30pm (except December 24th at 2pm) with matinees Saturdays at 2pm and Sundays at 4pm. For tickets, contact the box office at 719-255-3232 or visit theatreworkscs.org.

PHOTO CREDIT: Isaiah Downing

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