Lyceum review: 'You Can't Take It With You' offers timely laughs, useful message

A Depression-era comedy may be just the thing.

Members of the audience who packed the Arrow Rock Lyceum Theatre for the evening showing of "You Can't Take It With You" Saturday, July 25, were laughing from the first moments of the play when Essie Sycamore (played by Mallory Hawks) dances -- with the best grace a devoted amateur can muster -- across the stage.

Laughter erupted again and again throughout the performance, demonstrating the play's timelessness, perhaps, or its timeliness.

As Director Michael Evan Haney observes in the program's director's notes, when the play opened on Broadway "millions were out of work and the citizens were blaming Wall Street greed for their dire circumstances. Hmmm."

The play takes place at the home of the Sycamores, an eccentric family led by a patriarch, Martin Vanderhof, whose "live and let live" philosophy offers a counterpoint -- or maybe an antidote -- to the frantic striving of the stereotypical "Wall Street type," represented by Mr. Kirby, played by David Girolmo, seen on the Lyceum stage earlier this year as Daddy Warbucks in "Annie."

The conflict is set up when Kirby's son and business heir, Tony, becomes engaged to Vanderhof's granddaughter, Penelope, bringing the two families together and putting their very different philosophies on a collision course.

Vanderhof observes at one point that "life's kind of beautiful if you let it come to you."

That's a notion that appalls Mr. Kirby, who finds Vanderhof's philosophy "dangerous."

While the contrasting philosophies of the two men deliver the unsubtle message of the play, it's the enthusiasms of the Sycamore family -- from making fireworks and candy to writing plays, dancing and playing the xylophone -- that provide the delightful support for the argument.

The Lyceum cast did a uniformly wonderful job of portraying the joy of amateurism. It's difficult to single out performances, but the two that impressed me most were Quin Gresham, as Ed, the hobbyist printer and xylophone accompanist to his wife, Essie, as she practices her ballet.

They arrive at the joyful mediocrity from two different directions. Hawk has had dance training, but manages to be a convincing amateur, letting enthusiasm overwhelm the graceful movements she's no doubt capable of.

Gresham, on the other hand, hadn't played the xylophone before preparing for his part, but he performs with the competence of a devoted student who has not quite mastered the instrument but who plays for the love of it.

"It took a lot of work for her to achieve the spirited lack of skill you see in the show," Gresham said. "My amateurish playing required no work -- it comes quite naturally!"

The elevation of enthusiam and love -- not only for their respective pursuits but for each other -- over material gain and glorious accomplishment is what defines the family, and it's with the cacophony of their various performances as a backdrop that Vanderhof hopes to convince Kirby to give up blind ambition.

The local connection in this play is Marshall actor Andrew Wells. He plays Henderson the Internal Revenue Service agent who calls on Vanderhof early in the play to serve notice that Vanderhof is in arears for more than 20 years of income tax.

Wells' shriek of alarm at the family's antics as he exits the stage got a big laugh from the Saturday evening crowd.

"You Can't Take It With You" shows Wednesday, July 29, at 2 and 8 p.m.; Thursday, July 30, at 2 p.m.; Friday, July 31, at 8 p.m.; and Saturday, Aug. 1, at 2 and 8 p.m.

For ticket information, call 660-837-3311.

Contact Eric Crump at marshalleditor@socket.net

On the Net:
www.lyceumtheatre.org