You Can’t Take It With You: further casting announced

Further casting has been announced for the Broadway revival of Moss Hart and George S. Kaufman's Pulitzer Prize winning drama You Can't Take It With You, opening at the Longacre Theatre on 28 Sep 2014, following previews from 26 Aug 2014, for a limited nineteen-week run.

Elizabeth Ashley (The Grand Duchess Olga) and Byron Jennings (Mr Kirby) will join the previously announced James Earl Jones (Martin Vanderhof), Rose Byrne (Alice Sycamore), Annaleigh Ashford (Essie Carmichael), Mark Linn-Baker (Paul Sycamore), Kristine Nielsen (Penelope Sycamore), Reg Rogers (Boris Kolenkhov), Crystal A. Dickinson (Rheba), Julie Halston (Gay Wellington), Marc Damon Johnson (Donald), Patrick Kerr (Mr. De Pinna) in the play's principal cast.

You Can't Take It With You follows the Sycamores and the Kirbys - two completely different families whose worlds collide when their children become engaged. James Earl Jones plays Grandpa Vanderhof, leader of a happily eccentric gang of snake collectors, cunning revolutionaries, ballet dancers and skyrocket makers. As the youngest daughter brings her fiancé and his buttoned-up parents over for dinner, fireworks start to fly.

The original production of the play opened at the Booth Theater on 14 December 1936 and ran for 837 performances, taking home the 1937 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. This production is being produced by Jeffrey Richards, Jerry Frankel, Jam Theatricals, Dominion Pictures, Jay and Cindy Gutterman, Daryl Roth, Terry Schnuck, Jane Bergere, Caiola Productions, Rebecca Gold, LaRuffa Hinderliter, Gabrielle Palitz, Spisto & Kierstead, SunnySpot Productions, VenuWorks Theatricals, Jessica Genick and Will Trice.

You Can't Take It With You is directed by David Rockwell, with scenic design by David Rockwell, lighting by Donald Holder, costume by Jane Greenwood and sound by Jon Weston.

Elizabeth Ashley has appeared in numerous Broadway productions, including 'The Best Man' (2012 revival), 'August: Osage County, Dividing the Estate', 'Enchanted April', 'The Best Man' (2000 Revival), 'Take Her', 'She's Mine', 'Barefoot in the Park', 'The Skin of Our Teeth', 'Caesar and Cleopatra', 'Legend', 'Suddenly Last Summer', 'Agnes of God' and 'Cat on a Hot Tin Roof'. Television credits include "Evening Shade", "The Buccaneers"(PBS), "Saturday Night Live" (Host), "The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson" (Regular), "The Rope" (Cable ACE nom.) and "The Two Mrs. Grenvilles".

Byron Jennings's Broadway stage credits include 'Macbeth', 'Arcadia', 'The Merchant of Venice', 'Inherit the Wind', 'Noises Off, Is He Dead?', 'Accent On Youth', 'Heartbreak House', 'A Touch of the Poet', 'Twelve Angry Men', 'The Man Who Came to Dinner', 'A Month in the Country', 'Sight Unseen', 'Carousel', 'Henry IV', 'Dinner at Eight', 'The Invention of Love' and two productions of 'Macbeth'. Jennings has also appeared in films such as "Lincoln", "Julie & Julia", "Hamlet", "Civil Action", "The Ice Storm", "A Time To Kill", "Quiz Show", "A Simple Twist of Fate" and "I'm Losing You".

- by Bona Ruocco