Depression-era comedy still relevant on Chapel Street's 21st-century stage

During the height of the Great Depression, playwrights George Kaufman and Moss Hart had a message for everyone: relax and have fun.

They wove that theme throughout "You Can't Take It with You," one of their most famous comedic plays, which opened in 1936.

Seventy-four years later, the country mired in another economic downer, everyone would do well to take Kaufman and Hart's advice - and the Chapel Street Players are making it easy by putting on "You Can't Take it with You" as their annual fundraiser show.

"We tend to forget that we need to relax," said director Marsha Amato-Greenspan. "We get so overworked and so worried about everything that we forget."

The show, Chapel Street's 47th annual fundraiser, is a two-hour reminder, she said.

It tells the story of a the Sycamore family, a relaxed bunch who do whatever makes them happy, whether that is collecting snakes, writing awful plays, playing the xylophone or making fireworks.

The plot thickens when daughter Alice, the only normal family member, falls for her boss's son and brings his family, the Kirby's, over for dinner, only she couldn't have picked a worse night.

The comedy stays light throughout the performance, which epitomizes farce, or real people doing ridiculous things, Amato-Greenspan said.

It's a prop-heavy show, and though Amato-Greenspan didn't get the live snakes she wanted to let loose across the stage, there are some surprises to keep the audience laughing, she said.

"People need to laugh right now," she said. "It's two hours of fun, from the time they hit the stage, to the time it ends."

What makes this show especially unique is that the cast includes Renee O'Leary, who will be appearing in her 47th Chapel Street fundraiser, Amato-Greenspan said, and the show is the final performance in the theater's 75th anniversary season.

By Adam Zewe