You Can't Take It With You (2007)

Recent stock market gyrations making you nervous? Take comfort in the message of the next West Jordan Theater Arts production, “You Can’t Take It With You” at the Sugar Factory Playhouse.

This delightful play by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart opens at the Sugar Factory Playhouse (8201 South 2200 West) September 21, and runs until September 29, every day but Sunday. Doors open at 7:00 and the show begins at 7:30.

Written in 1934, “You Can’t Take It With You” presents the clash of two families: the zanily sane Sycamores and the conventional but unbalanced Kirbys. Tony Kirby wants to marry Alice Sycamore, but Papa “Wall Street” and Mama “Bluestocking” Kirby object. Alice’s Grandpa Martin Vanderhof (stamp and snake collector, darts expert and tax dodger) isn’t so sure that getting mixed up with such a family of stuffed shirts is a good idea, either.

Directed by Rosalie Richards, this production stars Tom Drury as Grandpa, Shaina Burgoyne as Alice, Scott Huish as Tony, Richard Vass and Marilyn Gallaway as Mr. and Mrs. Kirby, Bruce Craven as Mr. Sycamore (fireworks manufacturer) and Denise Gull as Penny Sycamore (playwright and painter). Other cast members include Elizabeth Abbott as Essie Sycamore Carmichael (ballet dancer and candy-maker), Shelby Maughan as Ed Carmichael (printer and xylophonist), Gordon Jones as Kolenkhov (ballet instructor) and Wyatt Sanders as Mr. DePinna (fireworks inventor and male model). Throw in a boozy Broadway actress (Melanie Turner), an IRS agent (Russ Benson), various J-Men (including Dan Thompson and Alec Osborne), the live-in maid (Kassidy Gull) and her fly-catching boyfriend (Brett Turner), the Grand Duchess Olga Katrina (Jen Crabb) and you begin to sense the potential explosiveness of this comedy.

In an interesting side note, Tom Drury and Gordon Jones first met as cast members of this play in 1959, on the stage at South High School (now the Grand Theatre). Since then, Tom has acted and sung all over the world while Gordon, since returning to Utah in 2000, has acted in most of the community theaters along the Wasatch Front as well as at the Sugar Factory as Fagin in “Oliver!”

Tickets are $5 ($3 for children, students and seniors) and can be purchased at the door or at the West Jordan Macey’s Food Store (7800 S. 3200 W.). Doors open at 7:00 pm and the show begins at 7:30.

West Jordan Theater Arts presents four shows a year at the Sugar Factory Playhouse. The next production will be “The Best Christmas Pageant Ever.”