BIG CAST, BIG LAUGHS, BIG HEART

A  joyful Morgan-Wixson production
proves this classic still delivers the goods

Community theatre rarely aims this big—or lands this charmingly. The Morgan-Wixson Theatre’s You Can’t Take It With You is that happy reminder of why this 1936 chestnut still works: a huge, game cast, a director who understands rhythm, and a play that practically runs on joy. “You can’t take it with you,” after all, isn’t just a title—it’s a philosophy, and here it plays like a tonic. Cate Caplin keeps the many moving parts humming, letting George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart’s eccentrics collide with just enough control to keep the chaos buoyant. This is old-fashioned comedy done the right way: big, busy, and blissfully alive.

At the center is Carl Weintraub’s genial Grandpa, presiding over a household where fireworks are made in the basement, ballet is attempted with heroic ineptitude, and everyone seems committed to doing exactly what makes them happy—whether or not they’re any good at it. The pleasures are cumulative: Cassidy LeClair’s gloriously misguided dancer, Michael Mullen’s scene-chewing Kolenkhov, and a parade of sharply drawn oddballs that keep the evening percolating. Yes, the production occasionally shows its community-theatre seams, but what it lacks in polish it more than makes up for in spirit. A little rough around the edges—and all the better for it. In a moment when audiences could use a break, this You Can’t Take It With You delivers exactly that: two hours of laughter, warmth, and the comforting reminder that joy, not perfection, is the point.

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photos by Gabriel Tejeda-Benitez

You Can’t Take It With You
Morgan-Wixson Theatre
2627 Pico Boulevard, Santa Monica, CA
Fri & Sat at 8; Sun at 2
ends on March 29, 2026
for tickets, visit Morgan-Wixon

for more shows, visit Theatre in LA

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