YOU CAN'T TAKE IT WITH YOU, Hale Centre Theatre, 3333 S. Decker Lake Drive, through Oct. 2 (984-9000). Running time: 2 hours, 10 minutes (one intermission).
WEST VALLEY CITY — It won a Pulitzer Prize 65-plus years ago, but don't get "Pulitzer" get mixed up with "serious." "You Can't Take It With You" was hilarious (and blissfully insightful) in 1938, and it still carries a pretty cool message for today's over-achieving masses.
Local actor/director David Neiman is known for his knack for fine-tuned comedy, and this production of the George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart classic is no exception. From Andrew Barrus' attention-to-detail period setting (1936) and Amy Frary and Peggy Willis' costumes, to the large cast of professional-caliber performers — this is a perfect remedy for the end-of-summer doldrums.
More than half the ensemble is single-cast.
And there are standouts all over the place, including Linda Jean Stephenson as Penelope Sycamore, a housewife who took up writing when a typewriter was delivered to the house seven years earlier, and John Paulk as her husband, Paul, who fiddles with fireworks in the basement (with the almost-able assistance of accident-prone Mr. De Pinna, played by Bob Walkingshaw).
Rounding out the eccentric family are Ed and Essie Carmichael (Paul Gibbs and Shawnda Moss), and beloved Grandpa Vanderhof, beautifully played by Neal Barth. Grandpa's the one who encouraged the others to give up their stress-filled jobs and pursue their own crazy dreams at home.
The "black sheep" of the family is Alice Sycamore (Marissa Young), who has a 9-to-5 office job, where she's madly in love with Tony Kirby (Ryan J. Poole) — the boss's son.
Also passing through the Sycamore home at 761 Clairmont are Russian ballet instructor Boris Kolenkhov (Andrew R. Looney), flask-toting actress Gay Wellington (Sallie Cooper), Bureau of Internal Revenue agent Henderson (Jim Gastelum), and Tony Kirby's stuffed-shirt parents, Anthony and Miriam (Douglas Stone and Sally Hale).
Kris Matthews also chips in a nice bit near the end as exiled Grand Duchess Olga Katrina, now stuck as a waitress in a Times Square diner.
Contemporary audiences may be bothered by the mid-'30s perspective on African-Americans. The household help — Rheba (Natalie Palmer Sheppard) and Donald (Michael Morris), joke about how much more laid-back "us colored folks are" in a world where "whites" are caught up in one stressful situation after another.
But it's Grandpa Vanderhof who has an attitude that would work well today for most of us — taking time to smell the roses and enjoy life. After all, he reasons, you can't take it with you.
E-mail: ivan@desnews.com