The Grand Duchess - 1937 - West End Articles Page 2

Playwrights Kaufman and Hart saw the vitality and urgency of comedy within drama when they penned You Can't Take It With You in 1936. It won a Pulitzer for Drama in 1937 and then a Best Picture Oscar for the film version in 1938. Their other big hit The Man Who Came to Dinner in 1939 has a similar theme and tone. In both plays it's wild, zany over-the-top characters and off-kilter incidents that blow the lid off the humdrum existence of the well to do middle class, and to meaningful avail. In Y.C.T.I.W.Y., the wealthy Kirbys are about as unlike the crazy free-living Sycamores as black is to white. Yet, when meshed together, merriment and unexpected happiness abound. With a spectacular cast (double) and brightly paced direction from Gigi Birmingham, Antaeus' Y.C.T.I.W.Y. is a splendid tonic for our depressing economic times and simply a whole lot of fun.

Roundabout Theatre Company announced the full company of the new musical Death Takes A Holiday, with a book by Peter Stone & Thomas Meehan, music & lyrics by Maury Yeston, directed by Doug Hughes. The cast will include Linda Balgord (Contessa Danielli), Matt Cavenaugh (Eric Fenton), Mara Davi (Alice), Joy Hermalyn (Cora), Jay Jaski (Lorenzo), Simon Jones (Dr. Dario Albione), Rebecca Luker (Duchess Lamberti), Patricia Noonan (Sophia), Julian Ovenden (Prince Sirki / Death), Jill Paice (Grazia), Michael Siberry (Duke Lamberti), Alexandra Socha (Daisy Fenton), Don Stephenson (Fidele), Max Von Essen (Corrado Montelli).

The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis (The Rep) opens its 2010-2011 Mainstage series with You Can't Take It With You by Moss Hart and George S. Kaufman. Performances of You Can't Take It With You will be given on the Browning Mainstage of the Loretto-Hilton Center for the Performing Arts, 130 Edgar Road (on the campus of Webster University), Webster Groves, September 8 through October 3, 2010.

The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis (The Rep) opens its 2010-2011 Mainstage series with You Can't Take It With You by Moss Hart and George S. Kaufman. Performances of You Can't Take It With You will be given on the Browning Mainstage of the Loretto-Hilton Center for the Performing Arts, 130 Edgar Road (on the campus of Webster University), Webster Groves, September 8 through October 3, 2010.

The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis (The Rep) opens its 2010-2011 Mainstage series with You Can't Take It With You by Moss Hart and George S. Kaufman. Performances of You Can't Take It With You will be given on the Browning Mainstage of the Loretto-Hilton Center for the Performing Arts, 130 Edgar Road (on the campus of Webster University), Webster Groves, September 8 through October 3, 2010.

Lincoln Center Festival 2010 is sponsored by American Express. Lincoln Center Festival 2010 is also made possible by Nancy A. Marks, LuEsther T. Mertz Charitable Trust, Isilon Systems, The Skirball Foundation, The Harold & Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust, The Katzenberger Foundation, Inc.

Lincoln Center Festival 2010 is sponsored by American Express. Lincoln Center Festival 2010 is also made possible by Nancy A. Marks, LuEsther T. Mertz Charitable Trust, Isilon Systems, The Skirball Foundation, The Harold & Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust, The Katzenberger Foundation, Inc.

It is love American style when two people fall for each other and their mismatched families finally meet. The Farmington Players will open Valentine's Day weekend with, 'You Can't Take It with You,' a screwball comedy that has been stealing hearts since it debuted on Broadway in 1936.

The Metropolitan Opera has reason to celebrate; $2.5 million worth of tickets were sold on Sunday, the first day of sales, through its box office, telephone call center and Web site, up from $2 million on the first day of sales last year, according to the Associated press.

Eight new productions, four of which are company premieres, will highlight the Metropolitan Opera's 2009-10 season. General Manager Peter Gelb and Music Director James Levine jointly announced plans that include: the Met premieres of Rossini's Armida, Verdi's Attila, Jan?ček's From the House of the Dead, and Shostakovich's The Nose; new productions of Bizet's Carmen, Offenbach's Les Contes d'Hoffmann, Thomas's Hamlet, and Puccini's Tosca; and 18 revivals from the company's repertory. The season is the first to be entirely planned under Gelb's leadership, in collaboration with Levine (the past three seasons were planned before Gelb became General Manager in 2006-07 but included some productions, repertoire, and casting changes made by Gelb).