Comedy still has chops
One leaves the theater with a very real moral lesson that succinctly defines what it is to be an American: the value of freedom to do as you please.
By Cary Ginell soundthink@aol.com

Despite the fact that its first performance took place more than 70 years ago, George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart's comic masterpiece "You Can't Take it With You" wears its age quite well.

It is being presented by the Conejo Players in a run that continues through Dec. 15. The show was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1936 after an 837-performance run on Broadway and was followed by an equally successful film version starring Jean Arthur and James Stewart and directed by Frank Capra.

The story concerns the Sycamores, a family of goodintentioned societal misfits, each of whom has a passion for something he or she is not very good at.

The father, Paul, is enamored with homemade fireworks that always seem to misfire. His wife, Penny, took to writing melodramatic plays after a typewriter was mistakenly delivered to their home. Grandpa quit his 9-to-5 job to pursue his hobbies of raising snakes and attending commencement exercises. Daughter Essie bakes candies and has been taking ballet lessons for eight years but shows no signs of grace or improvement. Her husband, Ed, plays xylophone (badly) and runs a home printing press, through which he disperses propaganda by Bolshevik revolutionary Leon Trotsky.

None of these endeavors are altogether unusual in or among themselves, but together they constitute a rather eccentric clan, happy in what they are doing because they are doing what makes them happy.

Enter the straightlaced Kirby family, whose patriarch, Anthony, is a successful but stuffy Wall Street executive. When his son falls in love with the Sycamores' second daughter, Alice, it sets up a meeting of the families for dinner, during which you sense that sparks will be flying, and not just because of the fireworks in the basement.

If this scenario sounds familiar, it is because "You Can't Take it With You" is the grandfather of the modern day sitcom, in which a quirky but lovable family takes on problems faced in "the real world," with everything working itself out in the end. Every television comedy, from "All in the Family" to "The Addams Family," owes a debt to this landmark play, and the play's story line has even been represented in movies ("Meet the Parents") and on Broadway ("La Cage Aux Folles").

Kaufman and Hart were geniuses at character development, with each role perfectly and clearly defined. Because of this, the outlandish and literally explosive goings-on of the second act are perfectly reasonable and in accordance with the characters' motivations.

The Conejo Players has done an excellent job of casting the large ensemble, led by the wonderful Dick Johnson as Grandpa, whose charming and graceful philosophy of life is probably what attracted Frank Capra to the play.

Every bon mot uttered by the avuncular Grandpa is frameable, reflecting the philosophies of Kaufman and Hart, free spirits themselves. It should be noted that Johnson is also responsible for the evocative Depressionera set design, which consists solely of the Sycamores' comfy living room.

Arryck Adams, Conejo Players' resident character actor (this is his 49th production with the company) portrays Ed Carmichael, the impressionable innocent who places Trotsky's sayings in his wife's candy boxes, attracting the attention of government authorities. The giggly servant, Rheba (Cheridah Best), and her outsized teddy bear of a boyfriend, Donald (Ken Patton), make an adorable couple.

It would be impossible to single out each of the stellar performances in the play, but we would be remiss not to mention two scene stealers: Mark Fagundes as the flamboyantly Russian ballet teacher Boris Kolenkov, and the hilarious Tami Keaton as the perpetually tipsy would-be actress Gay Wellington.

After the smoke and dust settles, one leaves the theater with a very real moral lesson that succinctly defines what it is to be an American: the value of freedom to do as you please.

The Sycamores chose life over money, and as Grandpa says to Kirby Sr., "You can't take it with you. So what good is it? As near as I can see, the only thing you can take with you is the love of your friends." A great philosophy for this holiday season.

For more information, visit www.conejoplayers.org.