University Theatre brings a comedic classic of American theater to the Fine Arts stage for UGA’s Spotlight on the Arts festival: You Can’t Take It With You by Moss Hart and George S. Kaufman, directed by Justin Anderson.
Performances will be held in the Fine Arts Theatre Nov. 6, 11-14 at 8 p.m. and Nov. 8 and 15 at 2:30 p.m. Tickets are $16, $12 for students, and can be purchased at drama.uga.edu/box-office, by phone at 706-542-4400 or at the Performing Arts Center or Tate Center box office.
You Can’t Take It With You is a comedy about a pleasantly free-spirited family and their unbridled pursuit of happiness-and what happens when the one “normal” member of the family gets engaged to another non-eccentric whose straight-laced family comes over for dinner. The result is fireworks, both figurative and literal.
You Can’t Take It With You premiered on Broadway nearly 80 years ago and won the Pulitzer Prize for drama for its playwrights Hart and Kaufman, the duo who had a string of hits through the ’30s and ’40s.
Justin Anderson, associate artistic director of the Aurora Theatre, said that while the laughs are big, the deeper message of the play is just as important.
“Happiness isn’t a destination: it’s a journey, rife with moments of intentional celebration,” he said. “It will never be a fleeting mirage if we simply take the time to digest the life we are living, the love we are pursuing and the wholeness we all crave.”