THEATER REVIEW / ‘YOU CAN’T TAKE IT WITH YOU’ : Choice Chestnut : Santa Paula Theater Center’s production proves there’s still life in the Kaufman and Hart classic.

Though one might reasonably tend to dismiss “You Can’t Take It With You” as a hoary old theatrical chestnut long deserving retirement, every once in a while, a production of the classic 1936 farce comes along forcing reconsideration.

Such is the case with the version being offered by the Santa Paula Theater Center, under the direction of Olympia Dukakis. First-rate casting and production values practically resurrect George F. Kaufman and Moss Hart’s (by now) dogeared script, and certainly provide a couple of hours’ worth of good old-fashioned theater for all the season ticket holders still recovering from the company’s recent production of “Waiting for Godot.”

Robert E. (Doc) Reynolds stars as Martin Vanderhof, patriarch of a relentlessly wacky family living in New York City. Pat Gebhard is his daughter, Penny, whose creative outlets alternate between unfinished paintings and unproduced plays. Braden McKinley is Paul Sycamore, her husband, who dabbled in the manufacture of fireworks with Mr. DiPinna, who wandered in several years ago and never left.

Rose Blackburn plays Paul and Penny’s terminally klutzy daughter, Essie, who (of course) aspires to The Dance; Alan Price is her husband, Ed, who plays with his xylophone and printing press, and Frederic R. Helsel is Kolenkhov, Essie’s expatriate Russian ballet teacher.

Sandy Katzel is Rheba, the family maid, and Russell Sveney plays Rheba’s boyfriend Donald. He’s resentful that he has to devote an entire half-hour of each week standing in line to receive his welfare check.

There are more: a tax collector (Bob Goodwin), three Justice Department representatives (John Stockdill, Dale Champion and Tom McWilliams), a deposed Russian grand duchess (Dot Scott), and an actress whose 15 minutes in the spotlight ended several years earlier.

Into all of this come the strait-laced parents of Tony Kirby (John R. Brown), the fiance of the Sycamores’ second daughter, Alice (Brenda Kenworthy). The only Sycamore with a normal job--working for Tony, as it happens--and no obvious eccentricities, Alice loves her family, but fears that the elder Kirbys won’t understand them.

She’s right.

All of this is happily resolved, though with a solution that works only for those who have an independent source of income and the willingness to cheat on their income tax. It helps, too, to understand the numerous by-now obscure ‘30s cultural references, though if last Sunday’s audience is typical, somebody within a seat or two of you should be able to explain them.

The cast is uniformly superlative, looking right (thanks in part to Abra Flores’ costumes) and playing their roles perfectly straight. Particularly hilarious are Frank Ellis and June Dudley as the elder Kirbys, and Michelle Taylor’s very physical portrayal of actress Gay Wellington.

Willy Eck’s wonderfully detailed stage set adds considerably to the production; you could set up housekeeping in the Sycamores’ living room. A note of commendation, too, to Brian D. Wilson’s work with the sound effects and to whomever came up with the period intermission music.

* WHERE AND WHEN

“You Can’t Take It With You” continues weekends through Dec. 19 at the Santa Paula Theater Center, 127 S. 7th St. in Santa Paula. Performances are at 8 p.m. Thursday through Saturday, with Sunday matinees at 2:30 p.m. Tickets are $12.50, $11 for students and seniors, and $7 for the Thursday rush. For reservations or further information, call 525-4645.