It takes a lot of smarts to act dumb — and make it funny without condescending to the character or the material.
Playing the tricky role of Billie Dawn in the new Broadway revival of “Born Yesterday,” Nina Arianda emerges as a technically dazzling comedienne. She lands all her quips, with inspired touches of physical humor for good measure. But her uncommon warmth and charm also make Billie touchingly vibrant. It’s a downright tour de force.
Garson Kanin’s 1946 hit starts off as an extended blond joke. The platinum-coiffed Billie — a part immortalized by Judy Holliday onstage and in the 1950 movie — is a former chorus girl whose broad New Jersey accent underlines her naivete.
Billie is kept in mink by Harry Brock (Jim Belushi), a crass, self-made millionaire. He loves her, but also confirms his dominance by belittling her constantly. “Goddamn dumb broad,” he grumbles. “You dumb little pot.”
Visiting Washington to bribe — er, lobby — politicians, Harry figures Billie needs someone “to smarten ‘er up a little” so she won’t embarrass him in society.
His first big mistake is to hire as her tutor an idealistic journalist, Paul Verrall (Robert Sean Leonard), who believes that “a world full of ignorant people is too dangerous to live in.”
Harry’s second big mistake is not realizing that his initial diagnosis was completely wrong: Billie isn’t stupid, but uneducated. After hitting the books and brushing up on the Founding Fathers’ ideals — the comedy doubles as a civics lesson, Ã la Frank Capra — she gains the confidence to make a stand against her corrupt boyfriend and his shady deals.
Director Doug Hughes keeps the action moving somewhat fleetly, even if John Lee Beatty’s overstuffed hotel-room set is as feathery as a wedding cake made of plaster. Frank Wood is just fine as Harry’s lawyer, eaten up by his compromises, but Leonard portrays Paul’s earnestness with deadpan stiffness. You don’t buy his love for Billie; on a recent night, he even blew one of the show’s best lines, which needed sensuality and comic timing to work.
Arianda, last seen in “Venus in Fur,” may have less stage experience, but she brilliantly tracks Billie’s evolution from vulnerable bimbo to assured woman made downright giddy by learning.
If this sounds like self-help, fear not: Kanin was too acerbic for that hogwash, and Arianda girds Billie’s sweetness with sly resolution. She also has a surprisingly good foil in Belushi, who doesn’t soft-pedal Harry’s brutal bullying while suggesting it’s prompted by insecurity.
Watching these two lock horns is so pleasurable, you want to see them again as soon as the curtain comes down.
elisabeth.vincentelli
@nypost.com