Event

You Can't Take It with You

This Pulitzer Prize winning play is set in the late 1930's and the plot centers around the Vanderhof clan, an extended family who live together in a large house situated near Columbia University. The house is owned by Grandpa Vanderhof, who spends his time collecting snakes, throwing darts and attending college commencements. His daughter Penny, writes plays on a typewriter that was delivered to their home in error. Her husband Paul, manufactures fireworks in the family basement, with the help of Mr. DiPinna, a gentleman who came to deliver ice and stayed on for seven years. Paul and Penny have two daughters: Essie, who dances ballet to the xylophone accompaniment of her husband Ed, and Alice, the one "normal" member of the family. Alice becomes involved with Tony, the boss's son.

"You Can't Take It with You" ran on Broadway for more than 800 performances.

From the opening description through the final dialogue it is entertainment, pure and simple. And beneath the funny surface, it is a meditation on the problems of individuality, conformity and the ways in which one decides to live one's life.