Mount Si High School Theatre Arts proudly presents its final production of the year, Kaufman and Hart’s “You Can’t Take It With You.”

In this humorous encounter between a conservative family and the crazy household of Grandpa Martin Vanderhof, playwrights George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart fill the stage with chaotic activity from beginning to end. Critics have admired the witty one-liners, the visual theatricalism, and balanced construction of the play’s three acts.

The formula originated by Kaufman and Hart—a loveable family getting into scrapes and overcoming obstacles—has been adopted as a format by most of today’s television situation comedies.

Performances run May 4, 5, 6 and 7, 7 p.m. in the Mount Si High School auditorium.

An understudy matinee will run at 2 p.m. on Saturday, May 7. Tickets are available at the door, and are $7 students, seniors and SVSD staff, $10 for adult general admission.

This show will be the final production by Kim and Dean Snavely for two years, as they both are leaving the district on leave to pursue their masters at CWU.  This show also marks a departure from past shows with the addition of Stephanie Merrow in the director’s seat. After assistant directing and choreographing since “Kiss Me Kate” in 2008, Merrow is making her directorial debut with “You Can’t Take it With You”, a play which sums up her philosophy of life.

Merrow has been teaching drama and dance, directing and choreographing for all ages since 1997. Currently, Merrow teaches and choreographs for Village Theatre, The Young Players, Mount Si High School, Stage Struck!, Valley Center Stage and Pathfinder school.

This show also feature sets adapted and constructed by Erik Beattie, an 18-year-old, former MSHS student currently enrolled in an engineering program through the Lake Washington school district.  His skill at creating sets is amazing, among the most professionally built sets at the school in the last decade.

“You Can’t Take It with You” opened in New York in1936 to instant critical and popular acclaim. This depiction of a delightfully eccentric family, the third collaboration by Kaufman and Hart, proved to be their most successful and longest-running work. Awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1936, the comedy went on to run 837 performances on Broadway. Kaufman and Hart sold the film rights to Columbia Pictures for a record-setting amount, and the 1938 film won an Academy Award for best picture. Perenially appealing to audiences, “You Can’t Take It with You” has become an American classic, regularly produced by high schools, colleges, and community theaters around the country. Successful Broadway revivals in 1965 and 1983 also attest to the play’s timeless appeal.