Zany comedy, now at Red Curtain in Marysville, proves love conquers all
Published 1:30 am Friday, March 24, 2017
This play is 80 years old, yet it remains one of the most popular community theater shows in rotation. The romantic comedy won the 1937 Pulitzer Prize for drama and was made into a movie that in 1938 won Academy Awards for best picture and director. CBS produced a TV version in 1979 and PBS filmed another in 1984 during a Broadway revival.
It’s hard to go wrong with “You Can’t Take It With You.” Red Curtain Productions in Marysville offers the classic American tale tonight, with a run through April 9.
In this play by the great George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart, Grandpa Vanderhof and his daughter’s wacky family, the Sycamores, are happily living their zany lives in his New York City home. Along with their odd friends, this madcap group of eccentrics includes a snake collector, a fireworks builder and several artistic wannabe types.
Only young Alice Sycamore has a real job. When sweet Alice becomes engaged to her boss’s son, Tony, the Vanderhof-Sycamore clan must clean up to meet the prospective in-laws. Disaster ensues when their guests arrive early and see Alice’s family in all its crazy glory.
Is the engagement over? Or will love conquer the differences?
Directed by Zoaunne LeRoy, the Red Curtain cast includes David Persson, Pamela Tobiason, John Chapman, Melanie Stagner, Dale Arends, Rebecca Erickson, Josh Read, Cara Thomas, Lacey Quincy, Jacy Leavitt, Koray Kocuturk, Andrea Miner, Debbie Rounds, Morgan Peeler, Yvonne Williams and Heather Fox.
If you go
Red Curtain’ “You Can’t Take It With You” plays March 24 through April 9, with performances at 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays and 2 p.m. Sundays at the Red Curtain Arts Center, 9315 State Ave., Suite J, Marysville (Goodwill shopping center, behind the EvCC cosmetology school). Tickets — $17 general admission, $14 for seniors, teens, college students and military, and $5 children — are available online at brownpapertickets.com or by calling 360-322-7402. More information is at www.redcurtainfoundation.org.
Next season
Red Curtain productions has announced its ambitious 2017-18 season, and is currently selling seven-show season tickets. A shortened season of five shows suitable for kids also is available.
“We’re offering a lot of great roles for women,” said director Scott Randall.
The season begins Sept. 8 with the classic Broadway musical “The Fantasticks.” Next up is Noel Coward’s “Blithe Spirit,” opening Oct 20. Red Curtain’s off-beat Christmas show is “My Three Angels,” opening on Dec. 1.
In 2018, see the new play “Body Awareness” by Annie Baker, opening Jan. 19. Griffin Harwood’s romantic comedy “Family Business” opens March 2. Eric Overmeyer’s “On the Verge, or the Geography of Yearning,” a female comedy, goes up April 20, 2018. And “Angry Housewives,” which had its beginnings about 35 years ago in Seattle, opens June 1, 2018.
