Angela Timberman and John Middleton

You Can't Take It With You, by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart, premiered in 1937, winning the Pulitzer Prize for drama that year. A year later the film version took the Academy Award for Best Picture. While the world has changed enormously in the 78 years since it first graced the stage, You Can't Take It With You continues to speak to and delight audiences about the world we observe all around us, and the truth of our own lives.

The entire play, set in 1937, takes place in the New York City home of an extended family headed by Grandpa Martin Vanderhof, a man who 35 years earlier walked away from his high pressure business career and since then has done only what he has wanted to do. This philosophy has also been handed off to his daughter and son-in-law, Penny and Paul Sycamore, and to their two daughters, Alice Sycamore and Essie Sycamore Carmichael, along with Essie's husband Ed Carmichael. Grandpa tends to his pet snakes and attends college commencement exercises; Penny writes, though never completes, plays, because a typewriter was delivered to their home by mistake eight years ago; Paul designs fireworks in a basement workshop with his assistant, Mr. Depinna, who has also become a household member; Essie incessantly practices ballet, very badly; Ed prints handbills and business cards on a press; and together Ed and Essie invent new candies.

Only Alice leads a conventional life. She works in a Wall Street business as secretary to the straight-laced President, Anthony Kirby, and has fallen in love with the new Vice President, Tony Kirby Jr. Tony is equally smitten with Alice and wants to marry her, but she believes the differences between their families—notably, the quirkiness of hers—will keep their union from working. Tony persuades her that love can conquer all, but his theory is sorely tested during an uproarious night that brings the families together, along with Boris Kolenkhov (Essie's ballet teacher and a refugee from Czarist Russia), the family's jovial housekeeper, and her near-do well boyfriend. For good measure there is also a drunken actress auditioning for a part in one of Penny's incomplete plays, and later Grand Duchess Olga, cousin to the last Czar. No kidding.

In the course of three acts Alice and Tony's romance is on again, off again, on and off, leaving the audience quite uncertain how it will all end. Along the way, we are treated to many clever laughs, some based on character, others on the farcical goings-on, and yet others as satiric jabs at both business and government. Imbedded in the laughs are pearls of wisdom concerning the folly of letting convention govern one's life, and the beauty of living a life based on what gives one joy. Grandpa in particular is quite an advocate for this philosophy. Of course, there is a big dollop of fantasy at work; this lovable extended family and their hangers-on all live off the wealth accumulated by Grandpa in his bull-market days, as well as the revenue he continues to receive from property holdings. Easy, then, to espouse walking away from the tyranny of work and smell the roses.

Still, Kaufman and Hart have poured pitchers-full of affection into each of these characters, and in spite of their wackiness and detachment from reality, we can't help but admire the conviction with which they invent their own lives, as well at their obvious love for one another. We sit on pins and needles waiting for their bubble to burst, while hoping it won't.

Director Gary Gisselman corrals the non-stop flurry of activity into a production that, despite the many characters and plot strands, is always crystal clear, gliding non-stop but never racing. He has assembled a terrific cast that brings each lovable character to life. As Grandpa, Raye Birk anchors the production with great timing, a wonderful sense of irony, and the ability to convince us that Grandpa's unorthodox views are not flights of fancy, but based on hard experience. Angela Timberman as Penny Sycamore is delightfully flighty, totally lacking self-consciousness and pretense, while John Middleton as Paul Sycamore is a convincing gentle spirit immersed in child-like invention and play.

Julia Valen as Essie and Max Wojtanowicz as Ed make a frenetic couple, she leaping about in ungainly ballet moves, he sputtering about his printing press, and the two constantly billing and cooing. As the more conventional love birds, Anna Sundberg (Alice) and Hugh Kennedy (Tony) have strong chemistry, making real both their love and their convictions about the odds of it surviving. As Tony's parents Nathaniel Fuller and Cathleen Fuller (real life spouses) are wonderfully priggish, trying their best to be civil to their hosts, even as their body language is broadcasting contempt.

Allen Hamilton is a hilarious Kolenkhov, proclaiming at random about the woes brought on by the revolution in his native Russia. His slow burn, finally erupting into cluelessness, is one of the highlights of the show. Charity Jones is a hoot as the booze-addled actress, and Wendy Lahr, herself somewhat of a grand duchess of Twin City stages, is pitch-perfect as a wonderfully earthy Grand Duchess. Jay Albright brings a lost-child sensibility to the role of Mr. DePinna in keeping with his part in the overall scheme.

Elisa Pluhar as the maid, Nellie, and Peter Lincoln Rusk as her dim boyfriend Donal, who speaks earnestly about being on "relief" as if it is his way of supporting that particular government program, do a good job of being overwhelmed by the madcap commotion around them. One curiosity: most productions, including an acclaimed Broadway revival that ran last season, list these characters as Rheba and Donald, and they are played by black actors; the Jungle production changes the names and made them Irish.

As is usually the case at the Jungle, the physical production is stunning. Tom Butsch has designed a beautiful Victorian drawing room, with delightful gingerbread over alcove windows, railed shelves on every wall displaying plates and other bric-a-brac, and all manner of clutter. Amelia Cheever's costumes are a perfect melding of the period with the idiosyncrasies of each character. The lighting effectively informs us of day passing to night and back to morning, while the sound design keeps us ever aware of the fireworks being created below stairs.

You Can't Take It With You is a great tonic anytime, soothing the nerves of coping with work deadlines, 24-hour news cycles, climate-change induced calamities, and traffic snarls. It feels especially well suited as a summer treat, an excursion into a life that, if it could only be ours, would promise endless sun-drenched adventure, contentment and love. It may be impossible for most of us to apply Grandpa Vanderhof's idealism outside the hallowed theater walls, but we might be better off for nourishing in ourselves, and in others, the potential to strive in that direction.

You Can't Take It With You continues at the Jungle Theater through August 9, 2015. 2951 Lyndale Avenue S., Minneapolis, MN, 55408. Tickets are $28.00 - $48.00. For tickets call 612- 822-7073 or go to www.jungletheater.com. For group sales call 612-278-0147.

Writers: George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart; Director: Gary Gisselman; Set Design: Tom Butsch; Costume Design: Amelia Cheever; Lighting Design: Don Darnutzer; Sound Design: Montana Johnson; Wig Design: Laura Adams; Fight Coordinator: Annie Enneking: Dialect Coach: D'Arcy Smith; Stage Manager: John Novak; Technical Directors: John Stillwell and Eric Veldey

Cast: Jay Albright (Mr. DePinna), Raye Birk (Grandpa Martin Vanderhof), Cathleen Fuller (Miriam Kirby), Nathaniel Fuller (Anthony Kirby, Sr.), Charlie Haakenson (Mac), Allen Hamilton (Boris Kolenkhov), Charity Jones (Gay Wellington), Hugh Kennedy (Tony Kirby, Jr.), Wendy Lehr (Grand Duchess Olga Katrina), John Middleton (Paul Sycamore), Gabriel Murphy (Mr. Henderson, The Man), Elisa Pluhar (Nellie), Peter Lincoln Rusk (Donal), Anna Sundberg (Alice Sycamore), Angela Timberman (Penny Sycamore), Julia Valen (Essie Carmichael), Max Wojtanowicz (Ed Carmichael), Eric Zuelke (Jim)

Photo: Kerri Pickett

- Arthur Dorman

Also see the season schedule for the Minneapolis - St. Paul region