Billie Dawn is a bright little thing who doesn’t quite know the difference between “inhibited,” and “inhabited.” But she’s come to Washington with her junk-yard millionaire lover and learns a thing or two.

Those are the bare-bones makings of Garson Kanin’s droll Born Yesterday, which is perfect summer fare for Warren’s 2nd Story Theatre. It’s a fine and enjoyable production with an outstanding Chris Perrotti in the lead as rich guy Harry Brock.

The theater doesn’t have air conditioning, but does have a nifty set by Tristan Jeffers with a view of the Senate office building outside the hotel suite Brock is sharing with Billie, played slow-witted but likeable by Rae Mancini. The acting is solid all around.

Harry realizes that Billie, an ex-showgirl, isn’t the sharpest tool in the shed. He’s involved her in his crooked scams, but also decides to hire journalist Paul Verrall (he showed up to interview Harry) to give her a little couth. Paul and Billie pore through books and work on Billie’s eccentric vocabulary, and along the way Verrall falls for Billie. But not before showing her just how corrupt her businessman lover is, a man who has come to Washington to buy off a certain spineless Senator Hedges, played by Jim Brown.

But Perrotti stands out as the gruff, rough-around-the-edges Harry Brock, a man who made his millions in junk and doesn’t try to hide the fact. He’s not above slugging someone in the stomach who he has a disagreement with, and not above telling off his alcoholic lawyer Ed Devery, who gets a smooth, confident portrayal from Eric Behr, a fine actor who has been doing more and more work at 2nd Story.

Perrotti’s the perfect tough guy who doesn’t mind stepping on others’ toes, but does mind offending others around him.

Also Mancini is a hoot as Billie Dawn, someone who is sincere in her interest in self-improvement but is often a little wide of the mark. She puts the birth date of the nation at 1779. Close.

Patrick Poole plays Verrall, the journalist tutor, with a kind of wide-eyed innocence, a feeling that Billie can be refined and the two can live happily ever after.

Born Yesterday dates from the mid-1940s, when it began a run of nearly 2,000 performances. It was later made into a film in 1950 and remade into a 1993 revival. So it’s a little dated, but it’s perfectly fun summer entertainment. And 2nd Story’s version is as good as it gets.

As act one of Born Yesterday at 2nd Story Theatre ended, I was thinking that Ed Shea had directed a nice piece of theater: Good performances, a terrific set, but not a lot of laughs for a comedy.

Patrick Poole, Rae Mancini, Chris Perrotti, John Palumbo, Eric Behr, Jim Brown and Peggy Becker give fine performances, and work well together, as an ensemble. I just didn’t find the material in act one very entertaining.

What changes in act two and continues through act three is that the script gets much funnier and Rae Mancini breaks out of the ensemble to hurl the comedy forward.

Eddie Brock (John Palumbo) has come to Washington, DC with his lawyer, Ed Devery (Eric Behr) to purchase, more or less, the services of Senator Hedges (Jim Brown). Brock is also traveling with his empty-headed girlfriend, Billie Dawn (Rae Mancini). Determined to make Billie more palatable to high society Brock hires writer Paul Verrall (Patrick Poole) to educate her. (Pygmalion, anyone?)

After a few weeks with her tutor, Billie begins to understand the impact of mindlessly signing her name to documents and starts to ask questions. When she asks lawyer, Ed Devery, what she is signing, he repeatedly brushes her off. Only after he is badgered into it, does he explain that she is signing documents that would set up companies in a few European countries. “A cartel?” Billie shoots back, clearly upset but pleased that she can use a just-learned word. That line, which is delivered flawlessly, is when the audience knows that things are going to be different.

As the story gets quicker and wittier, Mancini shows off her comic timing, and delivery.

Ms. Mancini, who at “let’s just say ‘30’”, is a veteran of local theater. She has previously performed at 2nd Story and The Gamm, with supporting roles at Trinity and The Perishable. I am, personally, disappointed that this is the only the first time I have seen her perform.

Hey, Sweetheart? Yeah, you. Lookin’ for a good time? Then hop in. I saw this play, Born Yesterday in Warren. Some guy named Garson Kanin wrote this one some 60 years ago. It still works fine, stands out like – like the Mount Hope Bridge against the night sky. Yeah, I know that I have a way with words. Everybody says so. Well, not everybody, but my mom does. And this blonde I know.

This guy, Ed Shea, directed the thing; he knows what’s what, and he has his gang in top form for this one. I mean you got the lights, the set, the music, the costumes, the props. Anyway, the play’s about this dizzy blonde with a heart of gold and a mind as empty as a confessional booth during Mardi Gras. Billie Dawn she’s called; she’s played by a red-hot Rae Mancini. Judy Holliday won an Oscar for her role as Billie in the movie version, and Mancini’s Billie is worthy of an award too. “I’m stupid,” Billie says, “and I like it.” She’s really not; but for too long she’s been content living an uninformed life in the lap of luxury – mink coats, jewelry, good booze, fast cars and all the trimmings provided by paramour Harry Brock played with a knock-out combination of brawn and bravado by Chris Perrotti.

Costume Designer Ron Cesario has Perrotti and the rest of the cast dressed to the nines in classic, understated post-war apparel. Billie looks voluptuous whether in a smock or dressed for dinner, and in one scene Brock, wearing striped pajamas, appropriately looks like a prison inmate.

Brock made a bundle in the domestic scrap iron business during the war, and now he wants to do the same thing in Europe. But he needs to buy off a few congressmen first. You know how regulations get in the way of honest businessmen. So he has to go to Washington. Since she’s never been to our nation’s capital, Billie naturally wants to go along to take in the sites. Afraid Billie will make a bad impression on Washington “society” – her never having finished finishing school or any other school for that matter – Brock takes his attorney Ed Devery’s (Eric Behr) advice and hires idealistic writer Paul Verrall (Patrick Poole) to turn Billie into an “educated lady” pretty much overnight. I know it sounds a lot like “My Fair Lady.” It is, but without the music and it’s 1946 D.C. not Victorian era London. None of that matters.

What matters is that Verrall knows a lot about everything except love. Billie, though, has been around the “Brock” a few times and she knows all about the physical aspects of love, but not much about “life” – politics, power, profit and personal responsibility. Poole and Mancini play well off each other; she is at one moment an innocent kitten and the next a seductive tigress. Poole balances the part of a man and a gentleman with a touch of genuine honesty. He really is as interested in her mind as he is in her body. But Billie is Brock’s girl. That’s what makes for a good story.

Everybody including Brock’s nephew Eddie (John Palumbo), Senator and Mrs. Hedges (Jim Brown and Peggy Becker) and the hotel staff play out the drama in a marvelous replica of a suite at the Ritz designed by Tristan Jeffers. The set is probably a lot nicer than most of the hotel rooms you can get in Washington today. Anyway, as Billie falls for Paul’s intellect and he falls for her … everything, things get messy. To protect his ass and his boss’s assets, attorney Devery over the years has put Billie in control of Brock’s business holdings. For years, she has mindlessly signed any document put in front of her and unknowingly gained power over Brock. She gets wise to his schemes and refuses to participate in his bribing a U.S. senator.

Kanin brings the whole thing to an end in a patriotic fervor that is a little on the preachy side, but nonetheless a logical conclusion to a convoluted plot. And everything comes out in the wash. Seeing the play is well worth the ride to Warren, I told this blonde I know. “So what’d you think? You wanna go or what?” I asked her.

“With you?”

“Yeah, with me.”

The blonde looks at me says, “What’d ya think? I was born yesterday?”

Washington, DC, corrupt politicians, questionable campaign financing, and crooked millionaire businessmen. Surprisingly, these are not topics ripped from the headlines of our nation’s major dailies, but rather what the events of today have in common with the 2nd Story Theatre’s current production of Garson Kanin’s dramatic comedy Born Yesterday. Throw in a blond bombshell who learns to quote Thomas Paine and the crusading journalist who falls for her ditzy ways, and you have the ingredients for Rhode Island theater’s summer sleeper hit.

Harry Brock arrives at our nation’s Capitol with only the most selfish of intentions. Armed with a reputable attorney and respected senator in his pocket, he’s prepared to use his fortune (made from selling junk) to get whatever he wants; and what he ultimately wants is to add to his fortune. His longtime companion is the clueless Billie Dawn, a sexy siren who endures Harry’s abrasive disposition, which includes the occasional slap across the face, in exchange for fur coats and diamonds. Per his lawyer’s advice, Harry reluctantly agrees to be interviewed by Paul Verrall, a distinguished writer for The New Republic whose good word on the page could potentially legitimize Harry’s sudden interest in politics. Meanwhile, Billie’s brazen idiocy proves to be a liability for Harry as he becomes better acquainted with high society, so he hires Paul as her mentor. And then the fun begins.

The couple’s tumultuous adventures take place in a lavish DC hotel room, complete with a view of the Capitol building, circa 1940s. The stage detail, which features vintage chandeliers, intricately designed area rugs and old-fashioned wooden entry and exit ways that transport the audience to the post-WWII era. The costumes are spot-on, especially for Billie, whose wardrobe is elegant and alluring and especially exemplary of this particular time period.

Chris Perrotti as Harry, Patrick Poole as Paul and Eric Behr, as conflicted attorney Ed Devery, all deliver stellar performances and provide a well-constructed acting ensemble. But once the second act gets under the way, the show belongs to Rae Mancini as Billie, who becomes willingly and joyfully consumed by her quest for knowledge while never losing her playfulness and innocent charm. I wasn’t entirely convinced of the chemistry that develops between Billie and Paul as the two spend seemingly every waking moment together, month after month. None the less, it was enlightening, for a change, to see brawn trumped by beauty and brains.

Ultimately, Born Yesterday is a delight, as well as a welcome distraction from (or perhaps a grim reminder of) our current political climate.