San Francisco Playhouse's latest offering, "Born Yesterday," wasn't - penned recently, that is. Playwright Garson Kanin's comedy premiered on Broadway back in 1946. But the eerie thing about it is that director Susi Damilano's revival couldn't possibly be more timely.
The boorish millionaire Harry Brock comes to Washington, DC in order to bribe a sitting senator into sponsoring a bill to end all the regulations curbing his junkyard industry. Sounds exactly like what the billionaire kleptocrats who make up the heinous Trump cabinet are doing every day to end industry, banking and climate-change regulations. The play's Senator Norval Hedges is exactly as corrupt, sniveling and kowtowing-to-obscene-wealth as every member of the Republican majority in the 2018 U.S. Congress.
Kanin's vision of the dirty interplay between politics and wealth has all sorts of resonance with today's hypercapitalist America. Brock is a loud, obnoxious alpha male who bullies his way into power and impresses himself (sound familiar?). He makes sure that his handshake is strong and overpowering, yanking his victim's arm and holding on a little too long. He intimidates his underlings. He abuses his fianc�e, Billie, verbally and physically.
Brock has utter contempt for the press, centered on a reporter from The New Republic hired to do a profile of him. It's Brock's idea to have the journalist Paul Verrall mentor Billie a la Pygmalion. The connection with a thinking, caring partner opens Billie's eyes to the corrupt machinations around her, and helps bring about the eventual downfall of the politics-power-filthy-lucre operation we're witnessing onstage. At play's end, social justice prevails - that's why "Born Yesterday" is a comedy. In Trump's America, it feels like the most unlikely fantasia.
"When I read this play, I was immediately struck by how resoundingly its message still rings after 70 years," producing director Damilano said in a press statement. "The timeless story of integrity triumphing over political self-interest feels as relevant as ever."
The entire Playhouse cast does juicy justice to the old-fashioned mechanics of this evergreen play. Michael Torres is convincingly blustering as Brock. Anthony Fusco is perfect as his attorney enabler. Jason Kapoor is suitably earnest as the emissary from the Fourth Estate. Louis Parnell is deliciously unctuous as the venal senator. The remainder of the cast carry off background roles seamlessly. As usual at Playhouse, the scenic, costume, sound and lighting designs are first-rate.
But hands down the production's biggest asset is Millie Brooks as Billie Dawn, the role that made Judy Holliday a star. Brooks begins as a convincingly ditzy showgirl - "I am stupid, and I like it!" But by play's end, she has become this incestuous world's dawning conscience, as she calls out bribery, corruption, and greed, noting how selfishness defines the senators she sees for sale. Today's history lesson: "Sometimes selfishness even becomes a government. Then it's called Fascism."
"Born Yesterday" plays through March 10. SF Playhouse, 450 Post St., SF. Tickets ($20-$125): sfplayhouse.org.
Oakland mon amour
A couple of exciting events are coming up across the dancing waters of San Francisco Bay. First off, Oakland Symphony invites you to experience "Mixtape," an experimental, boundary-pushing musical series curated exclusively for the Oakland scene. Favorite local artists come together in intimate venues to explore the sights, sounds and voices of Oak-town "in a mash-up of genres that defies boundaries and creates new connections between artists and audience."
Press materials inform, "'Mixtape, Vol. 1: Femme Fatale' is a celebration of powerful, thought-provoking women, curated by Linda Harrison from the Museum of the African Diaspora (MoAD) and hosted by GLAAD Award-winning comedian Marga Gomez. Oakland's Sh8peshifter, DJ Nina Sol with her soulful sounds, and Oakland Symphony's own Dawn Harms (violin) and Michelle Kwon (cello) come together upstairs at the Starline Social Club on Feb. 1 at 8 p.m. to amplify the extraordinary diverse, female, and LGBTQ voices making music great today." (2236 MLK, Oakland; 21+ only; $15 advance, $20 door; tickets: (510) 444-0802, or oaksym.org/mixtape.)
Then, next week, Oakland Symphony presents a special concert, "Pride & Prejudice: Notes from LGBTQ," on Friday, Feb. 9, 8 p.m., at the Paramount Theatre, 2025 Broadway in Oakland. In this concert, part of the Symphony's "Notes from" series, the program will reflect on self-identity and self-expression through the artistry of LGBTQ composers and musicians celebrating difference, finding common ground and embracing the beauty of authenticity. Singer Noah Galvin from the Broadway musical "Dear Evan Hansen" and ABC's "The Real O'Neals" will be featured, along with world-renowned pianist Sara Davis Buechner. Oakland Symphony music director and conductor Michael Morgan will lead the orchestra. As you might already know, Morgan was the Grand Marshal of the 2017 Oakland Pride Parade.
The program, with Michelle Meow as MC, includes Samuel Barber (1910-81): First Essay for Orchestra, Op. 12; Benjamin Britten (1913-76): Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings, Op. 31 (with tenor Jonathan Blalock); Jennifer Higdon (b. 1962): "blue cathedral"; Camille Saint-Sa�ns (1835-1921): Piano Concerto No. 2 in G minor, Op. 22 (with Buechner on piano); and "With the Right Music: A Song Cycle" by Tim Rosser and Charlie Sohne, world premiere, commissioned by the Oakland Symphony (vocals from Galvin). Tickets ($25-90): (510) 444-0802 or OaklandSymphony.org.
No shiz, Sherlock!
Favorite newspaper correction of the week, from The New York Times, 1/26/18: "An article about a meeting of Sherlock Holmes devotees referred incorrectly to a costume worn by a woman attending a costume ball. She was dressed as the Grimpen Mire, not a Scottish moor." Well, OK then!
Billie Dawn (Millie Brooks) contemplates her role in the corrupt world of Washington, DC, in "Born Yesterday" at San Francisco Playhouse. Photo: Jessica Palopoli