"Born Yesterday' and "House of Blue Leaves' on Broadway

Star-studded revivals are revitalizing Broadway this season. You can get your celebrity fix by seeing Kiefer Sutherland, Ed Harris, Brian Cox and Chris Noth in Jason Miller's That Championship Season, or Ellen Barkin in Larry Kramer's The Normal Heart,"¨ or Joel Gray and Sutton Foster in Cole Porter's Anything Goes, or Billy Crudup in Tom Stoppard's The Coast of Utopia, or a flock of celebrities in John Guare's The House of Blue Leaves.

But nothing revives Broadway glamour like the dazzling moment when a new star is born."¨"¨ That's what's happening right now in the current revival of Born Yesterday, Garson Kanin's 1946 classic comedy, which opened on Broadway last week. A recent graduate of New York University's Tisch School of the Arts is reigniting Broadway in a role that Judy Holliday immortalized, proving— contrary to the age-old adage— that lightning can indeed strike twice in the same place.

Nina Arianda barely had time to remove her cap and gown before making a smashing debut last season at the Classic Stage Company in David Ives's tantalizing two-hander, Venus in Fur, in which a kinky young actress auditions for a playwright with some fairly fantastic results. Stalking about the stage in hip-high stiletto-heel black patent leather boots, Arianda dazzled audiences with her charismatic stage presence and comedic timing.

Now she's in the big time on Broadway, claiming the immortal role of Billie Dawn that was previously staked out by such legendary names as Judy Holliday, Madeleine Kahn and Melanie Griffith.

Familiar plot

Born Yesterday's plot may indeed read like yesterday's news. A business tycoon comes to Washington with a dumb blonde on his arm, intent on building his empire by buying favors, influence and Congressmen. He farms the blonde out to a highbrow writer to "educate" her so that she'll fit in; the writer in turn transforms her into an independent-minded woman who bites the hand that feeds her, and so on.

Kanin borrowed this tale from Shaw's Pygmalion; Woody Allen, in turn, borrowed it from Kanin (in Bullets Over Broadway), and so on. It's a tried and true story with consistent entertainment value. But the freshness that Arianda brings to her stock character type is marvelous to behold.

As the diamond-in-the-rough Billie of Act I, she plays the stereotypical "blond bombshell" with the sultriness of Jean Harlow and the kittenishness of Marilyn Monroe, while adding her own special blend of playful panache and fetching flamboyance. With a stylish, sexy sweep, she strides into the swank Washington hotel suite, wisecracking in a Queens accent and a squawk that could shatter glass. Her hair is white-blond, her lipstick is fire-engine-red, her designer suits are curvaceous, her high heels are towering. Sulking and skulking around the stage, she's unpredictable, and you can't take your eyes off her.

Quoting Tom Paine

At the same time, Arianda exudes an innocence, a purity and a bedrock shrewdness, as a well as a love of life"“ one that ultimately triumphs over her love of the two mink coats that her sugar daddy has provided her. By Act II, when she is transformed into a thinking woman who reads and quotes Thomas Paine (of all authors), among others, Arianda as Billie has captivated our hearts and our admiration as well.

Yes, there are lapses in her transformation— for example, when she quotes Abraham Lincoln as saying, "This country with its institutions belongs to the people who inhibit it." But we root for her all the way as she rebels against her stereotype.

Making others look good

Arianda comes across as an innately generous actress who possesses the skill and the sense to make everyone else around her onstage look good, and herself even better, as a result. Whether she's exchanging rat-a-tat retorts like gunfire with her tycoon, played by a bullying, blustering Jim Belushi, or dealing him a hand of gin in dead silence (punctuated by her gleeful giggles"“ she wins, of course), her comedic timing is impeccable.

With her tutor, Paul, played by an elegant, sensitive Robert Sean Leonard, Arianda shows a warmth and vulnerability that's deeply affecting. In summary, she gives a performance that downright endearing.

Garson Kanin's play evokes a glamorous postwar Broadway epoch that included plays by Eugene O'Neill, Thorton Wilder, Tennessee Williams and Arthur Miller. (There were clouds in that blue show-business sky, too: Judy Holliday was subsequently called to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee about her alleged communist leanings.) But the glamour that newborn Nina Arianda exudes transcends the New Deal"“ it's more like the Real Deal.

Guare's crazy cadre

Meanwhile, down the block, another revival boasts a star lineup that includes Edie Falco, Ben Stiller and Jennifer Jason Leigh: John Guare's The House of Blue Leaves, which premiered off-Broadway in 1971. For me, however, the star of this revival is the play itself, with its colorful, crazy cadre of characters and fantastical plot.

The play takes place in a house of hopeless souls in Queens, on the day in 1965 when the Pope visits New York City. Among those who anticipate his arrival is Artie (this time played by a returning Ben Stiller), a zookeeper by day and a nightclub pianist/singer/composer wannabe by night. Artie, miserably married to the agoraphobic/schizophrenic Bananas (played with aching delicacy by Edie Falco), is now smitten with their neighbor Bunny, a self-acclaimed gourmet cook (played by a wifty Jennifer Jason Leigh). They plan to elope once Artie commits Bananas to an institution.

Meanwhile, Artie's son Ronny, who has gone AWOL from his Vietnam-bound unit, hides away in a back room, planning to blow up the Pope during his anti-war speech at the UN. Other assorted oddballs add to the brew, including a flock of nuns from New Jersey en route to see His Holiness, who end up camping out in the Queens "safe house" to watch Him on Artie's TV. And so on and so on, until their world explodes, literally.

Into the surreal

Watching this wacky, off-kilter comedy/drama reminded me of the significant impact that John Guare"“ and this play in particular"“ has exerted on American theater. When The House of Blue Leaves opened in 1971, Edward Albee had recently emerged with his absurdist dramas, while across the pond in London, Harold Pinter had come on the scene with his dark comedies of menace. But Guare's play stands apart in that era with its unique mixture of sanity and breakaway craziness, its unbridled imagination, and its foray into the surreal. The current revival of The House of Blue Leaves reminds us of the path to black comedy and magical realism that Guare has paved for playwrights like Christopher Durang and Sarah Ruhl, to name only a few, who have followed.

"Once I was a bride of Christ, now I'm a gay divorcee," exclaims a nun who survives the mayhem. Guare sets some of his souls free, and away they fly like the blue leaves on the tree in Banana's deranged vision. So too has Guare inspired the flights of fantasy of his contemporaries, and of writers of future generations.