Our Productions

YOU CAN’T TAKE IT WITH YOU by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart was awarded the 1937 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and is one of the most successful comedies of all time. The madcap (and possibly mad) cast of characters has been delighting audiences for over 75 years.

In addition to its continuing success through the years,
YOU CAN’T TAKE IT WITH YOU is also one of the most popular and giddily romantic American plays ever written. In our delightful revival, James Earl Jones played the role of Grandpa and the director was six-time Tony nominee Scott Ellis, who seems to have a way with revivals (Twelve Angry Men, Harvey, She Loves Me, 1776, Drood). The design team was David Rockwell (sets), this year’s special Tony Award winner Jane Greenwood (costumes) who has seventeen previous nominations, and Tony Award-winning lighting designer Donald Holder (The Lion King, South Pacific).

YOU CAN’T TAKE IT WITH YOU centers around the Vanderhof clan, a loveably dysfunctional New York City family. Their patriarch is Grandpa Martin Vanderhof (James Earl Jones), a wise if eccentric man who lives according to his own philosophy – no matter what anyone else, including the I.R.S., may think. His daughter, Penny Sycamore, is a cheerfully frustrated painter, playwright, and whatever else may happen to strike her fancy that day. Her husband Paul experiments with making his own fireworks in the basement, alongside Mr. De Pinna –a milkman who came to the house eight years ago and has never gone home. Also living under Grandpa’s roof are Penny and Paul’s children: Essie Carmichael (an aspiring candy-maker and ballerina), her musician husband Ed, and Alice, a Wall Street secretary, and seemingly the only “normal” character in the household.

It’s a bit of a shock to the family when Alice introduces her new fiancé, Tony Kirby, her boss’s son and the picture of a normal, successful businessman. The family quickly takes to Tony, and despite Alice’s misgivings, a dinner party is planned for Tony’s family to come to the Vanderhof home to meet Alice’s family. Tony shows up with his parents in tow –but unfortunately, they arrive the day before the party is planned, and catch the Vanderhofs not on their best behavior but certainly at their zaniest.

Altemus as Lewis, Andrew Cekala as Theo, Charlotte d’Amboise as Fastrada, Rachel Bay Jones as Catherine, Terrence Mann as King Charles, Andrea Martin as Berthe and Patina Miller as the Leading Player.