There is a musical aspect at the heart of You Can't Take It With You that rhythmically and melodically transports us into another state of consciousness. And I'm not talking particularly about the joyous-to-watch actor Will Brill, who as the flitting and fluttery Ed, pounds out Beethoven's "Ode to Joy" and a little later Rimsky Korsakoff's "Scheherazade" on a xylophone perched on the second floor landing of the Vanderhof home (while, in the living room below, his wife Essie (the hilariously comedic Annaleigh Ashford) dances sur les pointes without any discernible talent or technique.
If the sound of music is designated to compete with the occasional explosions of gun powder coming from the basement, let it be, as it is only a part of the harmonious cacophony created by the wonderfully eccentric characters in Moss Hart and George S. Kaufman's 1937 Pulitzer Prize-winning comedy. While it walks, talks and looks like a musical, it isn't, although you could swear that everyone is preparing to burst into song, mostly to fully express the play's daffy "Depression era" philosophy.
Even without songs to enhance characters that have since become icons of nonconformity, there is now on the stage of the Longacre Theater an assemblage of performers who individually or in concert swing and sway to the intrinsic musicality of the play. This is one of those rare comedies in which each lilting scene responds to the exacting beat of a metronome, as in this case, determined by director Scott Ellis.
This is the first Broadway revival of this classic since 1983. It seems like on only yesterday that we were invited back into the home of a family of good-hearted, tax-dodging, laws-avoiding loonies who stand their ground, persevere and incredulously succeed. The deliciously inane behavior of the Sycamore family has become an American legend in the past 78 years, thanks to the innumerable stock, regional and school revivals. Charismatically attracting strangers into their midst - - who manage to stay on after visiting hours are over, the Sycamores demonstrate the contagious joy of self-expression.
The innocently anarchic philosophy of Grandpa Vanderhof (James Earl Jones) acts as an inspiration for this close-knit family. Jones has been an imposing dramatic force on the stage ever since his debut in 1957 with his Tony Award-winning performance in The Great White Hope, makes crafty use of his well-being and brings a keen sense of a man willing to sacrifice a lot in the pursuit of happiness. that includes attending college commencements and collecting snakes.
Kristine Nielsen, who only last season charmed audiences in Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike, is a delight as his slightly ditzy daughter Penny, who took up playwriting one day when a typewriter was delivered by mistake. Her husband Paul (a fine performance by Mark Linn-Baker) has discovered how exciting making fireworks can be, as assisted by a now-permanent house guest Mr. De Pinna, played by the wonderfully comical Patrick Kerr.
It will be a long time before I forget the entrance and the coming-right-at-you gaze of Elisabeth Ashley the Grand Duchess Olga Katrina aka the blintzes Queen of Russia,. Reg Rogers is terrific as the impassioned Russian dance teacher who makes no pretense about how he feels about his pupil Essie, whose dancing, except for her fevered entrechants, is likely to evoke the image of a dying ostrich.
What more can one say about Julie Halston, who plays the stupefied alcoholic actress whom Penny met on a bus and brought home, but that she is hilarious.
Rose Byrne, who is best known for her role in the TV series "Damages," is making a disarming Broadway debut as Penny's daughter Alice who becomes increasingly mortified by the thought of having her family meet her suitor Tony Kirby's (excellent performance by Fran Kranz) family. The stuffy Kirbys are played with earnest aplomb by Byron Jennings and Johanna Day.
The spectacle and detail within designer David Rockwell's cluttered living room setting adds to the pleasure we experience. Director Ellis has done something much more than direct another successful revival of a classic. He has allowed the play the freedom to expand into a life it has never known before, at least to these eyes. There may be some truth in the saying "You Can't Take It With You," but certainly the memory of it will linger for a long time, and possibly until the next revival comes along.
