SAGA OF THE SYCAMORE FAMILY TREE: (left to right) Annaleigh Ashford, Reg Rogers, Elizabeth Ashley, Kristine Nielsen, Mark Linn-Baker, James Earl Jones & Patrick Kerr. Photo: Joan Marcus

YOU CAN’T TAKE IT WITH YOU
Written by Moss Hart & George S. Kaufman
Directed by Scott Ellis
Through February 22, 2015
Longacre Theatre
220 West 48th Street
(212-239-6200), www.YouCantTakeItWithYouBroadway.com

By David NouNou

Eccentric, quirky and zany characters in funny comedies are hard to come by these days, but a brilliant revival of the 1936 Moss Hart and George S. Kaufman comedy has just arrived and is setting off fireworks both figuratively and literally. Sure, the plot line is a bit over the top by today’s standards, but who cares when you are in the company of such expert comedic actors? You are here to laugh, have a good time and enjoy the foibles of people who enjoy their life by doing nothing but enjoying life, themselves and each other. It was an elixir to make people laugh for the depression era and it is still a tonic to be enjoyed in our troubled times.

Grandpa Vanderhof (James Earl Jones), head of the household, hasn’t paid his taxes in 24 years and doesn’t feel he should for the government isn’t good at handling money. Penny Sycamore (Kristine Nielson), his daughter, sits and writes ludicrous plays all day long because a typewriter was delivered to her address by mistake eight years prior and she took up playwriting. Penny is married to Paul Sycamore (Mark Linn-Baker); he creates fireworks and explosives for the 4^th of July weekends with his house guest, Mr. DePinna (Patrick Kerr) who moved in eight years earlier.

The Sycamores have two daughters: daffy Essie (Annaleigh Ashford), equally wonderful here as she was in Kinky Boots, makes candy all day called “Love Dreams,” and does all her movements through the art of ballet. She has been training deplorably for eight years to be a ballerina and is married to Ed (Will Brill), her marimba-playing musician husband. The only sane person in this loony bin is the lovely Alice (Rose Byrne). She knows her family is nuts, but she loves them through thick and thin.

Alice is also in love with Tony Kirby (Fran Kranz), who is straitlaced upper crust. She feels her family is way too eccentric to be accepted by his uptight parents: Mr. Kirby Sr. (Byron Jennings), who owns the company she works in, and Mrs. Kirby (Johanna Day). Throw in with this zany bunch Boris Kolenkhov (Reg Rogers), Essie’s boorish revolutionary ballet instructor who has been there for dinner for the last eight years. Gay Wellington (Julie Halston), an alcoholic actress who is auditioning for one of Penny’s plays, but has passed out before the play started; and the ever enchanting Elizabeth Ashley as the Grand Duchess Olga, cousin to the Czar of Russia, who is now working as a waitress at Childs Restaurant (famous chain in the 1930s). This is her day off and since she is an expert blintz maker, it takes her no time to whip up a batch of blintzes for the entire household. Throw in the IRS, G-Men, the police, a couple of kittens, some background snakes, a dinner party set on the wrong date that goes horribly wrong and you’ve got an evening of nonstop revelry.

This revelry is paced by the ever-competent director, Scott Ellis. He has a knack for the madness that ensues and has fine-tuned all his actors to be up to par for the occasion. Kudos should also be given to David Rockwell’s excellent revolving set of the seedy Sycamore home.

When you have the opportunity to spend some time with James Earl Jones, Annaleigh Ashford, Elizabeth Ashley, Rose Byrne, Kristine Nielson, Reg Rogers, Mark Linn-Baker, Patrick Karr, Byron Jennings and Johanna Day, how can you go wrong? None of us will probably ever be invited to the Sycamore household and maybe it’s just as well, but it was a hell of a night watching all their mirth and shenanigans.

GRANDPA KNOWS BEST: Rose Byrne & James Earl Jones. Photo: Joan Marcus

ECCENTRIC KINFOLK: Kristine Nielsen & James Earl Jones. Photo: Joan Marcus

MADCAP MOMENT: (left to right) Byron Jennings, Johanna Day, Fran Kranz & James Earl Jones in ‘You Can’t Take It With You.’ Photo: Joan Marcus

Edited by Scott Harrah
Published October 3, 2014
Reviewed at press performance on October 2, 2014

The post ‘You Can’t Take It With You’: A Farcical Family Affair appeared first on StageZine.

ACT ONE
Written and directed by James Lapine
From the Autobiography of Moss Hart
Through June 15, 2014
Vivian Beaumont Theatre
150 West 65th Street
(212-239-6200), www.ltc.org

By David NouNou

Adapting a legendary autobiography about the theatre is a risky and tricky matter, especially when the legend being discussed died in 1961, and writing about his early struggles of getting his foot in the theatrical door occurred in 1930. What makes it tricky is Act One came out in 1959, and it became a theatrical bible. People read books and didn’t go on Wikipedia to get instant summarization of a book or a man’s life. The man here is Moss Hart and he is legendary when you read his accomplishments as director, playwright, and screenwriter. He was a giant of his day. After all, he had just directed My Fair Lady, Broadway’s mega hit of 1956 and Camelot was to follow in 1960 just before his death. As a playwright, he co-wrote the Pulitzer Prize-winning You Can’t Take It With You and The Man Who Came To Dinner, both with George S. Kaufman. His screenplays consist of 1947’s Oscar-winning best picture Gentlemen’s Agreement and 1954’s A Star is Born, among others. The man was a prolific genius in every sense of the word.

But Act One isn’t about any of those historic events; it’s about his early childhood growing in the Bronx and Brooklyn in total poverty. His parents were Jewish immigrants from England, leading a dreary life, and the theatre was his only outlet. His Aunt Kate took him to a play and the bug bit. His life and passion became the theatre. He worked as a theatrical office boy, actor in the Catskills, wrote horrible plays that flopped and then wrote Once In A Lifetime and started collaboration with the celebrated master of the day, George S. Kaufman. The second act is all about the trials and tribulations of getting this play on its feet and to the Music Box Theatre on Broadway.

As I said earlier, writing about the theatre is a tricky matter, so the biggest challenge here is: Do modern audiences remember Moss Hart? They barely remember Rex Harrison and he was the actor who starred in My Fair Lady on Broadway and the movies. James Lapine has adapted the book into the play and pays reverential homage to the source by not omitting nary a single semicolon, which can be a good thing. Unfortunately, James Lapine the director didn’t take notes from his subject matter George S. Kaufman and delete a lot of his own written pages. For what actor, playwright, director didn’t grow up having a dreary life, being poor and had to work hard to get in the business? Ultimately, if they pay their dues, maybe, just maybe some do end up having the rags-to-riches story. Mr. Lapine had an interesting subject matter to deal with (Moss Hart) but unfortunately the book doesn’t deal with the interesting and later timeframe of his life to which modern audiences could relate. Mr. Lapine needed a Mr. Kaufman to edit a lot of the early unnecessary scenes and repetitious dialogue from Act II.

Having said all that and getting the storyline out of the way, there are a couple of hosannas on their way. Not since 1966 when the Beaumont opened and as a school project we had to go and discover the wonders of Lincoln Center, and the shows they were presenting, Danton’s Death and The Condemned of Altona (yes, I was a drama major) both dreary and bleak, but what struck me the most was the vastness of its stage. The revival of South Pacific tried to fill some of the vastness, but nothing compares to the set designed by Beowulf Boritt. The set is a revolving masterpiece that fills the entire stage and is very reminiscent of Oliver Smith’s sets. Mr. Smith, the premier set designer of his day, did the sets for My Fair Lady, Camelot, Hello Dolly, among many others. To see a show with awe-inspiring sets that is absolutely breathtaking; consisting of tenements, theatres, hotel rooms, offices and posh suites all on a revolving turntable are a vision to behold. Students studying theatrical design should see this show if for no other reason but the sheer magnificence of what Mr. Boritt has designed.

My other kudo goes to Tony Shalhoub, giving what might be his best stage performance to date. He plays three different roles succinctly: the older Moss Hart (who oversees the proceedings and how it all started); Moss’ father; as well as George S. Kaufman. His largest part is that of George S. Kaufman and he plays him to the hilt. Santino Fontana as the struggling young Moss Hart does an admirable  and energetic job as the passionate and charming playwright. Then there is Andrea Martin, also playing three parts: Moss’ Aunt Kate with a cloying English accent; Frieda Fishbein, the agent, the name says it all; and finally Beatrice Kaufman, George’s socialite wife; that’s her best part, she plays her demurely and gives her a quiet touch of class.

The rest of the cast supported unevenly, the worst being Mimi Lieber as Moss’ mother, Lillie. At any given line, she had four accents going on in the same sentence: they consisted of an abominable English accent, Jewish, Bronx and Brooklynese. You never knew with which accent she would start, continue and then end the sentence. Where were Mr. Lapine, the director and the dialogue coach? Was the fake English accent really necessary? I don’t think the audience would have minded if Moss’ mother, father, and aunt, had spoken with a Jewish New York accent because at least that would have been relatable. There is a lot of good in Act One and Moss Hart was a provocative person to write about, but unfortunately it wasn’t the right time of his life that modern audiences could identify with and be riveted by in a long biographical stage drama. I still recommend seeing Act One for Beowulf Boritt’s astounding set and Tony Shalhoub’s remarkable performance.

THE THESPIAN LIFE: Santino Fontana & Andrea Martin. Photo: Joan Marcus

Five Tony Nominations, including: Best Play, Best Actor – Tony Shalhoub, Costumes, Sound

WINNER: Beowulf Boritt, Best Set Designer

Edited by Scott Harrah
Published April 23, 2014
Reviewed at press performance on April 22, 2014

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