Review: Fun, wisdom still up-to-date in 1936 comedy

BY BOB FISCHBACH, OMAHA WORLD-HERALD
Published Saturday April 7, 2007

They say everything old, sooner or later, is new again.

Kim Jubenville is an unflappable, unfiltered matriarch in "You Can't Take It With You."
It's uncertain that "You Can't Take It With You," George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart's 1936 Pulitzer-winning comedy, was ever old, any more than its central character, Grandpa Vanderhof. Around age 70, both come off fresh as a daisy in the version that opened on the Omaha Community Playhouse main stage Friday.

For any age theatergoer, the play's laughs are intact, and its life-affirming wisdom is as relevant as ever.

Director Susan Baer Collins' cast brims with fine character actors, from bits to leads. A crackerjack set by guest designer Steven L. Williams - a rambling old house done up in wood paneling, dusty red walls and great period detail - envelops the goings-on in one more layer of warmth.

Collins' program notes point out that many a television sitcom has thrived on this play's formula: normal, likable people surrounded by endearingly eccentric zanies.

Laura Beeghly is both fetching and charming as the "normal" one, granddaughter Alice, a Wall Street secretary who has fallen in love with the boss' son, Tony Kirby (Seth Fox).

The zanies are led by philosophical Grandpa (Dennis Collins), who walked out on his office job 35 years ago - for no more reason than he didn't like it - and never looked back.

His house is filled with free spirits, including Alice's mother (Kim Jubenville), who paints and writes plays; her father (Ron Chvala), who makes fireworks; her sister (Nora Vetter), who dances; her brother-in-law (Jon Purcell), who plays the xylophone and prints fliers; and the co-habitating but unwed servants (Leiloni Brewer, Carl Brooks).

Oh, and Mr. DePinna (Michael Farrell), an ice deliveryman who came by eight years ago and never left.

Alice loves them all but knows this please-yourself approach will not fly with her prospective in-laws (Paul Schneider, Stacie Lamb), stuffy sorts who see life as duty, not choice.

We spend the whole first act reveling in oddness and absorbing just how in love Alice and Tony are.

Then, in Act Two, the Kirbys come to dinner, and the culture clash plays itself out.

That sounds simple, but chaos never is, and Collins conducts it like a comedic symphony of movement and timing. She begins and ends the show focused on theme - life is just a bowl of cherries - and pulls magic from 19 actor-instruments in between.

My favorites: Dennis Collins (the director's husband) as Grandpa, whose dry delivery trips laughs without ever begging; Vetter, whose every move is a ridiculous, energy-infused bit of choreography; Michael McCandless, a scream as a Russian dance teacher with attitude; and Jubenville as the household's unflappable, unfiltered matriarch.

But the truth is they're all as great as the Pulitzer-winning script they've been handed, and the fun they're having up there is both infectious and family friendly.

Word to the wise: Don't sneak out early and miss an inspired curtain call, in which Mr. Kirby pulls one last surprise.