Playcrafters’ presents ‘You Can’t Take it With You’
The time honored classic comedy, “You Can’t Take It With You,” speaks to the frailty and fragility of life and love when families meet and mix like oil and water. The production follows the moments in the lives of a slightly batty New York City family in 1936. The paternal head is the laid back, though opinionated, Grandpa Martin Vanderhof (Stephen Kuerschner) who presides over a crazy family of wanna be artists, dancers, writers —even firecracker makers.
Written by the George S. Kaufmann and Moss Hart (The Man Who Came to Dinner), the original production premiered on Broadway in the late 30s and has since flourished in popular productions across the country. The play won the 1937 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and was adapted for the screen, which won the Academy Award for Best Picture and Best Director. It also became remade into a TV show and movie.
“It’s the granddaddy of ensemble shows,” said Director Arnie Finkel who is directing 18 cast members. “Everybody’s a star in this one.”
The family-friendly two-andone-half-hour satire about how there’s more to life than just business; i.e., grandpa likes to go to zoos and hunt snakes and abides by his belief in not paying taxes, is being featured in two acts with refreshments at intermission. “There are lots of zingers,” Finkel said, “and the props are wild.”
Side-splitting humor comes to the table the night the family’s dinner guests get together. Granddaughter Alice, the only normal one in the family (Lillian Pyskaty),is proposed to by the boss’s son Tony (Sean Collins). When his parents (Frank Errington and Phyllis Blair) arrive for dinner on the wrong night, problems come to a head.
The rest of the zany characters include Alice’s sister, Essie (Kayla Smull), a candy maker, who dreams of becoming a ballerina and is married to Ed (Fred Halperin) who plays the xylophone; Mother Penny (Michelle Quigley) is a kind of ditz who writes sex-themed plays because someone accidentally delivered a typewriter to the house. She’s married to Paul (Julian Bonner) who makes firecrackers in the basement with De Pinna (Roie Gat). Rheba (Carlene Lawson) is the maid who is dating handyman Donald (Ron Lake).
Other characters make their cameos including actress Gay Wellington (Heiki-Lara Nyce); the grand duchess (Deborah Marotta); Henderson, the tax collector (John Silbaugh); followed by Russian ballet instructor Kolenkhov (Matt Lake) and the G-men (Jeffery Frost, Ryan Kadwill, and John Silbaugh).
Good plotting lends to this madcap comedy, “and you can’t help but be happy watching this thing,” Finkel muses. There’s also a special treat that will be offered to the audience.
If you go: Playcrafters presents “You Can’t Take It With you” at the Barn, 2011 Store Road at Skippack Pike, Skippack, Pa. on April 19, 20, 19, 20, 21, 27, 28 at 8 p.m., April 29 at 2 p.m. and May 3, 4, 5 at 8 p.m. Tickets are $17. Visit www. playcrafters.org or call 610-5844005.