[Born Yesterday] provided New York with what it craved in the field of pure divertissement: a new farce-comedy guaranteed to rock the rafters…. [It] rockets along through three joyous acts taking potshots at our legislators, at racketeers, time-servers and tarts. This is the Broadway formula hammered down tight: a wisecrack in every sentence, a smashing curtain line for each act, tough talk and plenty of action—and behind it all a vigorous satiric intent: in this case an attack on gangster techniques in business and venality in high places. (p. 200)