You Can’t Take It With You
You Can’t Take It With You
By Moss Hart and George S. Kaufman
Directed by Dave Russell
Starring Ron Schneider, Sarah French, and Robert Johnston
Mad Cow Theatre, Orlando FL</strong>
Tonight was a bold theatrical statement: there were two live cats on stage as well as actual ordnance. “You Can’t Take It With You” is one of the great screwball comedies from the Depression Era, and comedies generally don’t have that sort of shelf life. Today we would consider the Sycamore family “Arty”; 80 years ago they were just weird beyond belief. Essie Sycamore (Ame Livingston) pirouettes all over the stage; she takes ballet lessons from Russian ex-pat Boris Kolenkhov (Toby S. Pruett). She’s sort of semi-married to xylophone virtuoso Ed Carmichael (Charlie Wright) and Kolenkhov’s hoping to revive the true spirit of the Russian Revolution. Matriarch Penelope (Robin Proett Olson) writes plays but never finishes them; her husband Paul (Thom Mesrobian) supports them all by building fireworks; and her retired father Martin Vanderhof (Schneider) collects snakes and attends commencement services. OK, THAT’S a little weird. But if you strip away the comic characters there’s a romance fermenting. Well-behaved Alice Sycamore (French) hooks up with rich and promising Tony Kirby (Johnston), and when his parents (Bobbie Bell and Lucy Carney) drop by unexpectedly, it’s like the Wall Street Journal stumbling into a Communist cell meeting.
This is not a subtle show; it’s a given everyone here is here to overact. True, French and Johnson tone it down because they both want to make the right impression, but parents: they are what they are. There’s a steady supply of real fireworks in the basement set off by the otherwise calming Mesrobian and his cohort Mr. De Pinna (Terry Olson). Mr. Pruett can somehow make his eyes pop out, and Ms. Livingston spends more time on her tip toes than on her flat feet. It’s a crowded stage; Russian princesses and assorted underpaid servants are trod underfoot and in a quiet moment unpaid assistant butler Michael Sapp philosophizes: “Oh, those wacky White People!” The best work on stage came from Bobby Bell as the constipated and conservative business man; Bell always seems a perfect fit for these roles although his personal politics wend in other directors. That’s just good acting. There’s also a thread here about the IRS and the Feds; today the Sycamores might live in a compound in rural Nowheresville. They may be a bit outside the law, aren’t actively evil, they just pursue each their own dreams. I’ve hosted Fringe artists, and tonight’s party wasn’t all that far from what I’ve seen at home; just much funnier.
For more information on Mad Cow, please visit http://www.madcowtheatre.com
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