Imagine a home where live snakes, spontaneous ballet dancing, fireworks explosions and occasional xylophone playing are ho-hum affairs, and you'll have an idea of the unhinged eccentrics in this delightful production of George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart's 70-year-old Depression-era comedy You Can't Take It With You.
The Sycamore household is part carnival, part asylum. Penny is an aspiring Picasso, and also fancies herself a successful dramatist (with a bulging stack of unfinished plays to prove it). Her hubby Paul specializes in explosives and chance ignitions, while daughter Essie consistently flutters about like a prima ballerina. Grandpa (Joseph Ruskin, in a wonderful performance), enjoys the life of a retiree, but has some ugly tax problems, and daughter Alice, who is in love with her boss' son and wants to marry him, must try to bring her beau's snobby parents into the Sycamore fold. The operative word here is fun; there always seems to be some monkeyshines going on and there are a few pleasant surprises that pop up.
Director Gigi Bermingham has done an excellent job of balancing the play's comedic elements and pacing the three acts, and Tom Buderwitz's set design is marvelous. Note that as with all Antaeus productions, the play is double-cast.

Thursdays-Sundays. Starts: Oct. 19. Continues through Dec. 9, 2012

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