“Relax...let it come to you,” says Grandpa Martin Vanderhof of life. And that’s how director Peter Amster takes us into You Can’t Take it with You.We find Grandpa’s family at an easy pace in 1938 as they fill his homey, traditional, two-story wood-paneled house with joy toward what they’re doing and each other.
Granddaughter Essie is practicing ballet. After years of lessons, she’s not very good at it. (Lindsay Tornquist, though, is good at showing that it makes her happy, as is Joseph McGranaghan as her husband, who helps her make and sell candy when he’s not indulging a love of printing -- anything.)
Daughter Penny Sycamore is hunt-and-pecking out a play on -- and partially due to – a typewriter erroneously delivered to her years ago. (Peggy Roeder shares Penny’s fun with us nicely, as does David Breitbarth his own as her loving husband.) Paul Sycamore makes fireworks in the basement to sell on July 4th, aided by Mr. DePinna (enthusiastic Francisco Rodriguez). He once came to do a job and just stayed on.
Donald (earnest Christopher Wynn) makes one of his perpetual visits to cook Rheba (Tyla Abercrumbie, easy-going). Being on relief doesn’t stop him from doing errands for the family -- or eating with them.
Soon to be the center of all, both physically downstage and we might say spiritually, David Howard’s perfect Grandpa comes in from one of his favorite entertainments, a commencement. He’s soon followed by granddaughter Alice, the family’s sole social conformist. Alice works at a Wall Street firm, where she and the boss’ son, Tony Kirby, have fallen in love. Pretty Brittany Proia’s intelligent Alice wins our hearts too, as she struggles to reconcile her attachments to polar opposites -- the family of Tony Kirby (appealing Brendan Ragan) and her own.
First challenge to Grandpa and his family’s way of life comes with a visit from an IRS agent (Jesse Dorman, believably incredulous). But the major confrontation will be with Tony’s father (Douglas Jones, hitting the mark as usual). He and socially conscious wife (Gail Rastorfer, properly smug) come a night too early for a dinner party Alice has been so carefully orchestrating.
The encounter between her family and Tony’s persuades Alice that the two can never be reconciled. She feels she mustn’t forsake her home and those in it, which becoming a Kirby would make inevitable.
Of course, the crux of the dramatic conflict is whether Grandpa’s philosophy of life will trump Mr. Kirby’s. Grandpa asks him why he goes on with business he’s said drives him “pretty near crazy.” Replies the sufferer from an ulcer: “A man can’t give up his business.” Grandpa’s retort: “Why not? You’ve got all the money you need. You can’t take it with you.”
In a period where Asolo Rep explores the American character, Kaufman and Hart’s comedy offers an up-to-date version of how the “pursuit of happiness” sanctioned by the Declaration of Independence may be conducted. And to what effect. And to how many kinds of Americans.
Grandpa Vanderhof’s home is shown open to a number of people who represent what can make America inclusive. For instance, there’s Eric Hissom’s decisive Boris, Essie’s critical ex-Russian dance instructor. He later brings in The Grand Duchess Olga Katrina (Carolyn Michel, comical but avoiding caricature), who’s getting ahead to citizenship and ever-higher steps up in the popular restaurant business.
Supposed actress Gay Wellington (Kelly Campbell) comes to investigate a part in Penny’s play but ends up drinking in really intoxicating stuff. Government men (Mark Konrad, Jacob Cooper, Zak Wilson) play supporting roles to her and the most explosive people in the house.
Director Peter Amster choreographs brilliantly the prodigious amount of physical movement required of a large cast performing many different kinds of activities on many levels. Psychologically, he also moves us to share the sentiments that produce a happy ending. We can’t take Asolo Rep’s production with us, but it will certainly have a home among our joyful memories. Could it be that recall of still-relevant ideas and actions will help us make good choices in our pursuit of happiness?
