You Can't Take It With You
Rubicon Theatre has come up with a great holiday show, George Kaufman and Moss Hart’s You Can’t Take It With You. The set by David Baudry is outstanding and readily accommodates this play, which has nineteen characters. The play takes place in the New York City home of Martin Vanderhof, the patriarch of this large, loving, and very eccentric family.
Besides Martin, who gave up work 35 years ago to pursue his own idiosyncratic interests (snakes, commencement addresses), we find his daughter Penny, played simply by one of my favorite actors, Robin Pearson Rose, who writes but never seems to finish melodramatic plays. Then there is her husband (Leonard Kelly Young) who together with lodger Mr. DePinna (Jamie Torcellini often seen in musicals) create fireworks in the basement, which are periodically set off during the proceedings.
The rest of the family isn’t much saner. There the terrible ballerina (Sonia Sanz), her wild Russian teacher (Paul Ainsley), and the straight daughter Alice, played winningly by Winslow Corbett who loves her family but wants to marry into the straight-laced family of her boyfriend (the handsome Rick Collette). His parents perfectly played by George Backman and Allison Coutts-Jordon object and there in lies the conflict. In the end they are all untied by grandpa (lovingly played by Robin Gammell) into the realization that love is the most important and the belief that people should be left alone todo what they want as long as others aren’t hurt in the bargain.
Outstanding in this impressive group of actors, most regulars on the Rubicon stage, is, surprisingly, Stephanie Zimbalist who takes on two roles, the eccentric drunk actress Gay Wellington, and the Grand Duchess Olga Katrina, a local waitress. I say surprising because we knew she had a sense of humor from her days on “Remington Steele, but who knew she was a great physical comedienne. Her drunken actress is one of the funniest portrayals I have seen in years. She is worth the price of admission.
The play is well directed by another regular, Jenny Sullivan. She keeps things moving and in fact could afford to allow her cast to go even faster because they know what they are doing. Have yourself a grand old time and go see You Can’t Take It With You that plays at the Rubicon Theatre until Dec 23 www.rubicontheatre.org