WILLIAMSVILLE — Having launched their theater company with sell-out performances of “Our Town” last August, the Rock River Players now present George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart's “You Can't Take It With You” on May 5-8 at the Williamsville Hall on Dover Road.
In its review of the 2014 Broadway revival of “You Can't Take It with You,” The New York Times wrote, ” A lot of shows can make you laugh. What's rare is a play that makes you beam from curtain to curtain. Such is the effect of Kaufman and Hart's 1936 comedy about one improbably happy family during the Great Depression.”
The Rock River Players company features Stewart McDermet as Martin “Grandpa” Vanderhof; Debbi Reed-Savory as his daughter, Penelope Sycamore; Walter Corcoran as her explosive spouse, Paul. The Sycamore daughters, Alice and Essie, are played by Kayla Williams and Cris-Parker Jennings, whose puerile husband, Ed Carmichael, is played by Jeff Connor.
Alice is sweet on Tony Kirby, played by Arik Clark, though friction arises when the Sycamores meet Tony's parents, the upper-crust Anthony and Miriam Kirby, played by Charlie Tower and Ayers Hemphill.
Miles Keefe plays the flamboyant Russian ballet master, Boris Kolenkov; Sara Vitale is the German maid qua critic, Rheba; Bill Lincoln is Sycamore's partner in fireworks manufacturing, Mr. DePinna; Susan O'Hara is both Henderson and the Grand Duchess Olga Katrina; Somara Zwick-Madalinski, Richard Foye, and Tino Benson are the G-men; Abby Wicker is the delightfully elsewhere Gay Wellington and spunky young Lyra Maiello is the noodgy little girl-next-door.
George Reed Savory is prompter and Bonnie Haug-Cramp heads the backstage crew on props, set, sound, and lights with Rick King, Laurie Miner, and Pat Halloran. Annie Landenberger directs.