Kaufman & Hart’s 30s Comedy Shows that Love Conquers All

by Joanne Engelhardt

Who knew that a 1936 comedy could feel so fresh and fun?  Director Tom Gough brings joy to Foothill College’s “You Can’t Take It With You.” In their 1936 Pulitzer Prize winning romp, Moss Hart and George S. Kauman have written a delightful early romantic comedy.

Scenic Designer Ron Gasparinetti has reproduced a charming 30s old house with a large, elongated living room. Multiple doors and an elegant staircase add to the intrigue. Gasparinetti must have searched a slew of second-hand stores to pick up the wonderful mishmash of furniture, paintings, matching China plates, and wallpaper.

Summarizing the storyline of this play isn’t easy. The Kirby’s ramshackle New York house provides a home for three families: The Vanderhofs, the Sycamores, and the Carmichaels.  Grandpa Vanderhof (a Santa Claus-lookalike named Nicolae Muntean) is the family patriarch. He raises pet snakes and boasts that he has never paid income tax since he stopped working 35 years ago.

Just about every member living in the house has an interesting backstory, most of them absurd. Yet the family all genuinely love each other and enjoy each other’s idiosyncrasies.

One of the most level-headed members of the family is Rheba the maid (Tiffany Walters).  She apparently cleans, answers the door, and does a lot of the cooking. Yet the meals this family eats are not your garden-variety meals.  When someone asks what’s for dinner, Rheba announces she’s making cornflakes, watermelon, “some kind of meat” and candy.

The candy is homemade by Essie Sycamore Carmichael (Kay Thornton), who has been taking ballerina lessons for eight years—and is still a terrible dancer. Nevertheless, she is so happy bouncing around in her tutu that no one wants to tell her she has no talent.

The only seemingly sane member of the Kirby house is Alice (Georgia Ball) who actually works at a real job and brings home her paycheck (or most of it) to the oddball members of her extended family. But she falls in love with Tony (Eric Yu), the son of the owner of the business where she works—and he with her.

Much as she loves all the eccentricities of her family, she’s not keen on having Tony meet them for fear he’ll go running out the door.  But Tony genuinely cares for Alice and none of the crazy antics of her family scares him off.

After the two become engaged, it’s inevitable that Tony’s family and Alice’s family will have to meet. That’s when everything goes awry!

Several other actors deserve credit for their performances. As Mr. De Pinna, who has been living with the family for five years, Jim Johnson brings spunk and humor to his characterization. And no one will forget Mehul Smriti Raje’s hilarious performance as Miss Wellington, the actress whom Penny befriends on a bus and invites her to meet her family. Over the course of the evening Miss Wellington becomes so drunk she repeatedly falls asleep, wakes up, looks around and falls off to slumberland again.

But…. all’s well that ends well, as another play declares.  Despite a boatload of insane events, at play’s end Tony and Alice . . . well, maybe you’ll just have to buy a ticket to see how it all turns out.

 

“You Can’t Take It With You” by Moss Hart and George S. Kaufman, directed by Tom Gough, scenic design by Ron Gasparinetti, lighting by Maria Jose Alvarez Iriarte, sound by Arthur Garcia, and costumes by Robin “Dutch” Fritz.

—at Foothill College, Lohman Theater, Los Altos Hills, California. Info: foothill.edu – to November 24, 2024.

Cast: Deborah Anderson, Liza Azrapkina, Georgia Ball, Sema Bayla, Maricar Bella, Benjamin Hatch, Jim Johnson, Kenneth Leeds, William Mangan, Tyler Paranoia, Mehul Smriti Raje, Julia Rotakhina, Anthony Silk, Daniel Spiteri, Kay Thornton, Vinh Ton, Marc Theeuwes, Tiffany Walters, Trinity White, and Eric Yu.

Banner photo: Eric Yu as Tony & Georgia Ball as Alice. Photo: Tom Gough