Evening star., 1938-03-29

night and required but few secor
lunacy is perhaps the best mood play
reports, started most likely by enemies
OF the Pulitzer prize judges who gave
1t last years blue ribbon, that the play
was written by Moss Hart and George
s. Kaufman as joke. If 1t is true
you Can't Take 1t With You" still /,
the best joke In years. If you like
enjoyment, you better get over to the
National and let Sam Harris cast tell
1t to you. Even If you don't, maybe
you had better drop around and see
what marvellous things 1t can do for
your liver.
To be lyrically lunatic like Messrs.
Hart and kaufman, If you want to
be successful playwright and do q
sequel to you Can't Take It With
You," just start wondering what people
would be like If they were what they
wanted to be. Out Of the Hart-Kauf-
man speculation on the subject came
the Sycamore family, headed by
Grandpa Vanoerhof Each member of
the family is beautifully rugged
tndividualist. The Sycamore living
room (and what lifeD is headquar-
ters apparently for all the zanies in
the world. Grandpa, who started TO,
the office one morning IS years ago
and never reached there because it
suddenly seemed silly. is the head of
the family and a specialist in encour-
aging people to happiness. He be-
lieYes it is achieved by every one doing
the thing he wants to do-within rea-
son, OF course
lie LET'S his daughter write one
unsuccessful play after another,
his son-in-law manufacture fireworks,
his granddaughter split her time be-
tween making candy and ballet dane
ing. the former iceman, who just liked
the place so well he stayed for eight
years. become a combined fireworks
maker and artists model, while (if
you're still there) his grand-son-i in law
splits his time between xylophone
playing and printing on a small hand
press. All these arts and crafts are
practiced in the Sycamore living room
right before your eyes, achieving an
effect that is explosively funny from
$40 to 10:55 pm. 1t is practically
unbelievable that so much could be
crowded into single setting and not
be bewildering. but it is not a bit
bewildering. Just hilarious.
Nothing can withstand the dopey
Sycamores. Even the Federal Gov
eminent falls before Grandpa's dis
approval of income taxes, disapproval
50 violent that he owes "a years back
taxes. The case is settled by the
Government apologizing to Grandpa
for having tried to collect the money.
A grand-duchess who comes to visit
them to get q square meal hnally
cooks it and the Wall Street baron
who doesn't want his son to marry a
Sycamore daughter finally capitulates,
joins the troup and takes up the
saxophone where he left off In the
days OF his youth. It's that sort of
thing.
AAAO NcuA4y ScI 4OASLSS6 Win WHICH
the species live takes an awful beat
ing In the words the playwrights put
into the mouths Of the Sycamores. So
convincing is 1t In its simplicity that
the economic insanity practiced by the
family comes out at the end of the
third act looking like the wisdom
toward which man has been cropping
all these years.
There's no need to worry about the
TACT that it is road company that
Is playing You Can't Take It With
You here. 1t is the company which
played the farce for year in Chicago
and compares evenly with the one
which has been on Broadway even
longer. Aldrich Bowker is second to
no one in making Grandpas non-con-
formlty to sane standards of living
look like the smartest thing any
elderly gentleman ever learned as a
result Of . long life. Eva Condor
Is practically perfect as the nitwit
Mrs. Sycamore, Bobbe Arnst is ex-
cellent as the daughter who wants to
dance (but never will, you bet), Mar
garet Callahan gives very appealing
performance as the only sane Syca-
more, the daughter who wants to