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You Can't Take it With You
Theatre@First's announcement triggered a sudden realization that I hadn't had consciously before: Kaufman and Hart's You Can't Take it With You is the prototype of all the thousands of wacky-yet-heartwarming comedies about an uptight bean-counter becoming romantically involved with a free spirit and getting his or her soul freed from conformity (or not) by the love interest's lovably quirky family of cute eccentrics.
It's been a very long time since I've seen it, but I saw it several times in my childhood in TV and stage productions (one at Arena Stage starred Bob Prosky, who later became a big TV star), and I remember it as a genuinely sweet and hilarious play. But I wonder if now it would come across as shopworn because of all the clichés it gave rise to, like so many other influential works.
It's been a very long time since I've seen it, but I saw it several times in my childhood in TV and stage productions (one at Arena Stage starred Bob Prosky, who later became a big TV star), and I remember it as a genuinely sweet and hilarious play. But I wonder if now it would come across as shopworn because of all the clichés it gave rise to, like so many other influential works.