`YOU CAN'T TAKE IT WITH YOU': THE NOBILITY OF ECCENTRICITY (REVIEW)

Nick Clubb shaved the top of his head to play Paul Sycamore, the fireworks-making member of the eccentric New York City family that is the star of "You Can't Take It With You." Director Cynthia Wyatt didn't want him to do it, but Clubb's right in the spirit of this Pulitzer Prize-winning play being presented this weekend at Cape Central.

Alice (Shannon Felker), the "normal" Sycamore, wants to marry her boss' son Tony (Adam Rigg), but she's afraid the differences between the families make the marriage's prospects dim.

After all, her mother Penelope (Susan Tansil) serves watermelon and cornflakes for dinner and writes unpublished plays with titles like "Sex Takes a Holiday." Penny's married sister Essie (Claire Syler) is forever dancing badly about the apartment in her ballerina costume.

And her grandfather (Champ Friend) has never paid income tax and boasts, "I haven't taken bicarbonate of soda in 35 years."

Alice laments, "Why can't we be like other people, with roast beef on the table and two other vegetables?"

But she also recognizes that "There's a kind of nobility about them."

As Wyatt has pointed out, "You Can't Take It With You" is a comedy with a serious message about valuing family.

The pacing in this production is admirable, even if sometimes you may find yourself wishing the actresses and actors realized how funny these people are.

Felker and the handsome Rigg make a believable couple, and she is an actress with a pleasing naturalism.

Friend, only a freshman, is remarkably self-assured in the pivotal role of grandfather Martin Vanderhof.

The normally ebullient Nick Ryan gives a restrained performance as Ed, whose forte is playing Beethoven on the xylophone. Clubb is fine as Paul Sycamore, as are Mike Oslund as Mr. De Pinna and Matt Antill as Donald.

Some of the ancillary characters spice up the action considerably. There's Boris Kolenkhov (Neil Totton), Essie's dance teacher, a man whose outlook is expressed in the words "That stinks." Cheryl Hilterbrand plays the Grand Duchess Olga, who drops by one day to be treated royally between shifts as a waitress.

Thomas Clayton sputters angrily as the IRS man who's come to bust the grandfather. And Maggie Clark as the drunken actress Gay Wellington spends much of her time onstage passed out but delivers a well-stirred rendition of "I Want to be Loved by You."

Elizabeth Hooker is especially good as the cook Rheba.

Nick Sterrett and Beth Bishop play Mr. and Mrs. Kirby, the stuffy would-be inlaws who learn something about themselves from the Sycamores.

Appearing as the officers who come to arrest the family are Laura Voszler, Amanda Wyatt and Ryan Hendrickson.

Kudos for the set, which gives the apartment dimension without losing any of the action.

Gina Pirch is the student director, Al Nicolai the technical director. The stage manager is Ryan Hendrickson and the faculty adviser is Kathy Davenport.