28Sep

A Tween Friendly You Can’t Take It With You on Broadway

youcanttakeitwithyou

The other night I ventured to a Broadway show with my daughter in tow; we went to see You Can’t Take it With You starring the formidable James Early Jones, Elizabeth Ashley, amongst many other great theater actors. I admit to knowing very little about it other than that it was a show for all ages. Since I am a great fan of introducing my kids to all kinds of art, particularly stage, I took her. It was only natural that on a Friday night, there weren’t many kids in the audience, something she noticed right away. While it concerned her mildly, we were both assured as soon as the curtain rose that this was a show for all ages. Its humor, affability and focus on family, plugged all the right buttons right off the bat. I was also full of satisfaction that she was about to experience Broadway legend, something we could talk about for years to come.

Since I had just seen a play about Moss Hart and George Kauffman a few months ago (Act One at Lincoln Center), I was truly intrigued by this show. Hart and Kauffman were two passionate playwrights who wrote You Can’t Take it With You, a comedic play in three acts, in 1936. The play won the 1937 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, and was adapted for the screen as You Can’t Take It With You, which won the Academy Award for Best Picture and Best Director. It’s an interesting play full of plot twists and memorable characters, and I loved seeing it updated and brought to the stage in 2014.

The story takes place entirely in the large house of a slightly batty New York City family the Sycamores. There’s Grandpa Vanderhof, played gracefully by James Earl Jones, a man who collects snakes and has never paid his taxes. Kristine Nielsen, who I loved in Vanya and Sonia and Mash and Spike, plays his daughter, who received a typewriter in the mail by mistake and became a writer of adventure, sex and war plays. Her mad scientist husband is played by Mark Linn-Baker, who rocked my childhood in the TV show Perfect Strangers. He manufactures fireworks in the basement. Annaleigh Ashford from Kinky Boots plays Essie, their daughter who dreams of becoming a ballerina and dances through life. Her performance is hilarious and left us in stitches – she’s a very bad dancer, and everyone knows it. She’s married to the quirky Ed, a xylophone player, played by Will Brill. Rose Byrne plays Alice, the other daughter, who works a day job and is the most normal of them all. She loves her family, but she’s sometimes embarrassed by their idiocentricities.

Alice is engaged to her boss Tony Kirby, played by  Fran Kranz, whose parents, played by Johanna Day and Byron Jennings, are upper class, posh members of society who clash with their future in-laws with outrageous consequences. The play also stars Nick Corley (The Mystery of Edwin Drood), Austin Durant (War Horse) and Joe Tapper (Witnessed By The World) as the three G-Men as well as understudies Barrett Doss, Ned Noyes and Pippa Pearthree. in addition to Tony Award nominee Reg Rogers , Theatre World Award winner Crystal A. Dickinson as Rheba, three-time Drama Desk nominee Julie Halston as Gay Wellington, Marc Damon Johnson as Donald and Patrick Kerr as Mr. De Pinna. Do you now understand the depth of the nature of the cast on stage? They play features twenty superb actors who must be having the time of their lives appearing in this show with the one and only James Earl Jones (who actually flubbed his lines once or twice but the show was in previews!).

Each actor is as wonderful as the show, and I can honestly say that my 11 year-old looked forward to the end of intermission, when the curtain would rise and unveil another chapter of the family’s incredible amount of loving insanity.

Previews began August 26 at the Longacre Theatre prior to an official opening Sept. 28. The production will play a limited run for 19 weeks only. Tickets are on sale by calling (212) 239-6200 or by visiting Telecharge.com.

 Disclosure: I was given a pair of tickets to facilitate this review but all opinions are my own.

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Comments

  1. Thanks for this review. I am a classic movie fan and love Frank Capra movies and this one starred the incomparable James Stewart and Jean Arthur. So I was wary of the play. After reading your review I’d love to now see it!

    I also saw Act One because I love Moss Hart and thought it was wonderful. Tony Shalhoub and Andrea Martin were superb and I was not disappointed.

    Glad you enjoyed a nice day out with your daughter!

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