As soon as it opened back in September, “You Can’t Take It With You” became the funniest show on Broadway. The wildly talented ensemble took hold of Kaufman and Hart’s 1936 chestnut and went to town.
Under the benevolent leadership of an impossibly relaxed James Earl Jones, the cast got so wild with loony high jinks that at times you didn’t know where to look.
Recently, the show welcomed a pair of new additions, slightly altering the chemistry of Scott Ellis’ production.
Replacing Rose Byrne as Alice Sycamore is Anna Chlumsky, best known as Julia Louis-Dreyfus’ harried chief of staff, Amy, on HBO’s “Veep.”
Alice is the show’s odd woman out, except in this case she’s happily ordinary while the rest of her family is happily eccentric. Alice is the only one to hold a regular job, compared to mom Penelope (Kristine Nielsen), who writes terrible plays, or sister Essie (the brilliant Annaleigh Ashford), a hilariously clumsy would-be ballerina with a sideline in homemade candy.
Trouble strikes when Alice falls in love with Tony (Fran Kranz), the son of a buttoned-up Wall Street banker.
Unlike Byrne’s Alice, who stuck out in every possible way from her wacky relatives, Chlumsky actually looks as if she belongs there — and not just because she physically resembles her onstage sister. A natural comedian, she tends to go for the laughs, and sometimes comes across as kooky as the others.
This undermines some of the premise’s humor, though Chlumsky also delivers the single best staircase descent of the year, stumbling down in horror while she lets out a cry that slowly devolves into an asthmatic wheeze.
Richard Thomas — “John-Boy!” someone cried out at a recent matinee — merges efficiently as Alice’s dad, who makes fireworks in the basement. But the part, previously played by Mark Linn-Baker, is much less important.
Quibbles aside — and really, when can you ever object that someone is too funny? — the show continues to delight.
Two performances are even better than before. Jones now seems to have a wicked gleam in his eye, and Elizabeth Ashley is looser in the cameo-like role of a ditzy Russian duchess.
They may not write plays like this anymore, but they sure can bring them to life.