STAGE REVIEW : Modernizing Play Disrupts Its Fey Quality

Some plays welcome updating better than others. Shakespeare, for example, can often handle a contemporary spin--the timelessness of his themes has a good chance of weathering many directorial indulgences.

Other plays are more iffy.

At Westminster Community Theatre, director Edward J. Steneck has tried to push Kaufman and Hart’s venerable comedy “You Can’t Take It With You,” into a more recent framework. Topical references abound; dinner consists of Big Macs and Kentucky Fried Chicken and living room chat settles on Johnny Carson, macrobiotics and Pet Rocks. There’s even mention of detente and Vietnam!

A director usually modernizes theater to make it accessible or to generate a dimension of surprise or risk. The latter seems to be the motivation in Westminster, but Kaufman and Hart’s theme of idiosyncratic life-rejoicing is so obvious and dear, it doesn’t need any enhancement.

Steneck’s version surprises, all right, but for the wrong reasons. His tinkering weakens the comedy, primarily because it is such a signpost of its generation. All these contemporary asides disrupt its fey, fantastic quality, that, in great measure, comes from being set in the Depression era ‘30s.

And without its fairy-tale edge, the play’s eccentric characters aren’t as charismatic. Having the patriarch (Tom Hardy) of this wacky clan banter about est, the Vietnam War and macrobiotics just won’t do. It doesn’t sound right and it doesn’t play right.

Despite the updating, Steneck has tried to keep most of the characters in character. Dani Ballews’ Essie is all manic energy and dizzy Pavlova pirouettes, LaDonna de Barros’ Penny is a benevolent basket-case and Michael Ross’ Kolenkhov’s is a likable Russian blowhard. However, as too often with revivals of “You Can’t Take It With You,” the acting tends to over-amplification.

There is one peculiar role-revamping. Tim Bagley has turned Donald into a disco dude. Done up in a “Saturday Night Fever” Travolta costume, he struts around Steneck’s comfy set muttering with a Brooklyn accent. He’s the weirdest image in this odd but too often gratuitous production.

‘YOU CAN’T TAKE IT WITH YOU’

A Westminster Community Theatre production of George S. Kaufman’s and Moss Hart’s comedy. Directed by Edward J. Steneck. With LaDonna de Barros, Dani Ballews, Karla Abrams, Brad Riker, Wayne Mayberry, Bradley Miller, Tim Bagley, Tom Hardy, Claudia Ehrhardt, Byron Batista, Greg Izay, Michael Ross, Jane Nunn, Bob Goff, Mary Benton, Chuck Benton and Cary McLean. Set by Edward J. Steneck. Lighting and sound by Roz Abrams and Bronson. Costumes by Sandi Newcomb and Roz Abrams. Plays Friday and Saturday at 8:30 p.m. through Oct. 1 at 7272 Maple St., Westminster. Tickets: $5-$7. (714) 893-8626.