Living in a city where indictments and cronyism are crowding the headlines, there’s something really satisfying about spending the night at the theater and rooting for the nerdy, idealistic Washington journalist to keep his integrity, get the girl and take the system down a peg in the process.

But that’s not the only reason to check out Arena Stage’s polished production of Born Yesterday, which opened last night. Another is the staging. The entire play is set in a posh 1940s hotel room, and the rich, satiny red furniture, glittering chandelier and jazzy soundtrack capture this nicely. Fichandler Stage’s in-the-round setup can prove challenging for a dialogue-heavy production, but this one uses it well – each side of the audience gets a different perspective of particular characters’ facials and reactions, just as someone would if he or she was in the room. Though a handful of stage scuffaws are a bit clumsy, the actors do a nice job with the physical comedy the various roles require.

The main players in Born Yesterday are the intellectual New Republic writer Paul Verrall (Micahel Bakkensen), the uncouth junkyard tycoon Harry Brock (Jonathan Fried), his bubbly but vacant girlfriend Billie (Suli Holum), his now-corrupt lawyer (Rick Foucheux) and the Senator he has in his pocket (Terrence Currier). Brock has come to D.C. in order to bribe away the legislation regulating his industry, but realizes his gilfriend’s crassness and stupidity won’t really fly in D.C.’s inner circles (he neglects to notice his own boorishness in the process). He hires Verrall, who has been pushing to do a Brock profile piece, to pull a Henry Higgins on Billie and teach her about politics and class.