Theater review: Billie Dawn goes to Washington in APT's bubbly 'Born Yesterday'

By Lindsay Christians, The Cap Times | July 1, 2018

Billie Dawn is an emphatic person.

Something in her bubbles all the time, spilling out as bouncy, half-sung Cole Porter tunes and little fireworks-style jazz hands. She tips through her lavish Washington, D.C. hotel suite on high heels, wearing low-cut, nipped-waist dresses and a quick smile.

Direct to a fault, rough around the edges yet so generous, Billie is a delight. And everyone underestimates her.

Billie, embodied by Colleen Madden in a waved blonde coif, is the primary subject of Garson Kanin’s 1946 comedy “Born Yesterday.” It’s a role made famous by Judy Holliday both on Broadway and in a 1950 film, and later by a sweetly vacant-looking Melanie Griffith in a 1993 remake.

As staged in American Players Theatre’s outdoor Hill Theatre in Spring Green, “Born Yesterday” places this Pygmalion story in a 1940s hotel suite, meticulously decorated with gold fixtures and cut glass tumblers by Nathan Stuber.

Read the full review here!