Elizabeth Ashley & Byron Jennings Join Starry Broadway Revival of YOU CAN'T TAKE IT WITH YOU

Producers of the upcoming Moss Hart and George S. Kaufman's Pulitzer Prize-winning play You Can't Take It With You announce that Tony Award winner Elizabeth Ashley (Take Her, She's Mine, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Gore Vidal's The Best Man) joins the production in the role of The Grand Duchess Olga and Byron Jennings (The Merchant of Venice, Inherit the Wind) joins in the role of Mr. Kirby.

Ashley and Jennings join previously announced cast members: Tony Award and Outer Critics' Circle winner James Earl Jones (Gore Vidal's The Best Man, Fences, The Great White Hope) as Martin Vanderhof, two-time Emmy and Golden Globe nominee Rose Byrne ("Damages," Bridesmaids, Neighbors) as Alice Sycamore, Tony Award nominee Annaleigh Ashford (Kinky Boots, Wicked, "Masters of Sex") as Essie Carmichael, Mark Linn-Baker (A Funny Thing...Forum, "Perfect Strangers," My Favorite Year) as Paul Sycamore, Tony Award nominee Kristine Nielsen (Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike) as Penelope Sycamore, Tony Award nominee Reg Rogers (Holiday, The Royal Family) as Boris Kolenkhov, Theatre World Award winner Crystal A. Dickinson (Clybourne Park) as Rheba, three-time Drama Desk nominee Julie Halston (Anything Goes, The Divine Sister) as Gay Wellington, Marc Damon Johnson (Lucky Guy) as Donald and Patrick Kerr (Stage Kiss, The Ritz) as Mr. De Pinna.

Previews will begin on August 26, 2014, at the Longacre Theatre (220 West 48th Street), with an opening night set for September 28, 2014. The production will be directed by six-time Tony Award-nominee and Drama Desk Award winner Scott Ellis (The Mystery of Edwin Drood, Twelve Angry Men, 1776) and will play a limited run for 19 weeks only. Tickets are on sale by calling (212) 239-6200 or by visiting Telecharge.com.

It has also been previously announced that three-time Tony Award winner Jason Robert Brown (two 2014 Tony Awards for Best Original Score and Best Orchestrations, The Bridges of Madison County; Parade), will write original music for the production.

The design team includes: set design by Tony Award nominee David Rockwell (Kinky Boots, Hairspray), costume design by 2014 special Tony Award recipient, Jane Greenwood (Act One, Waiting for Godot), lighting design by two-time Tony Award winner Donald Holder (South Pacific, The Lion King), sound design by Jon Weston (The Bridges of Madison County) and hair and wig design by Tom Watson (Act One, Waiting for Godot.

You Can't Take It With You will be produced by Jeffrey Richards, Jerry Frankel, Jam Theatricals, Dominion Pictures, Jay and Cindy Gutterman, Daryl Roth, Terry Schnuck, Jane Bergere, Caiola Productions, Rebecca Gold, LaRuffa Hinderliter, Gabrielle Palitz, Spisto & Kierstead, SunnySpot Productions, VenuWorks Theatricals, Jessica Genick and Will Trice.

Family can do crazy things to people. And the Sycamore family is a little crazy to begin with. James Earl Jones heads the wackiest household to ever hit Broadway in Kaufman and Hart's Pulitzer Prize-winning classic You Can't Take It With You. He plays wily Grandpa Vanderhof, leader of a happily eccentric gang of snake collectors, cunning revolutionaries, ballet dancers and skyrocket makers. But when the youngest daughter brings her fiancé and his buttoned-up parents over for dinner, that's when the real fireworks start to fly.

The original production of the play opened at the Booth Theater on December 14, 1936, and played for 837 performances. The play won the 1937 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.

ELIZABETH ASHLEY. Notable Broadway credits include Gore Vidal's The Best Man (2012 revival), August: Osage County, Dividing the Estate (also Off-B'way; Drama Desk nom.), Enchanted April, The Best Man (2000 Revival), Take Her, She's Mine (Tony and Theatre World Awards), Barefoot in the Park (Tony nom.), The Skin of Our Teeth (opened the American Bi-Centennial at the Kennedy Center), Caesar and Cleopatra, Legend, Suddenly Last Summer, Agnes of God, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (Tony nom.). Notable Off-Broadway credits include Red Devil Battery Sign, The Milk Train Doesn't Stop Here Anymore, When She Danced, and the New York premiere of Albee's Me, Myself, and I. Also, Sweet Bird of Youth (Helen Hayes Award Nomination/Millennium Award), The Little Foxes, and Mrs. Warren's Profession all at the Shakespeare Theatre, Washington, D.C. Film: Dragnet, The Carpetbaggers, Ship of Fools (Golden Globe nom.), Happiness (Independent Spirit Award). TV includes the HBO series "Treme", "Evening Shade" (Emmy nom.), "The Buccaneers"(PBS) "Saturday Night Live" (Host), "The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson" (Regular), "The Rope" (Cable ACE nom.), "The Two Mrs. Grenvilles," etc. Recording: Lou Reed's The Raven. Founding member/Board of Directors, American Film Institute and served on the first National Council Of The Arts under Presidents Kennedy & Johnson. Author: Actress: Postcards From the Road.

BYRON JENNINGS. Broadway: Macbeth, Arcadia, The Merchant of Venice, Inherit the Wind, Noises Off, Is He Dead?, Accent On Youth, Heartbreak House, A Touch of the Poet, Twelve Angry Men, The Man Who Came to Dinner, A Month in the Country, Sight Unseen, Carousel, Henry IV, Dinner at Eight, The Invention of Love, and two productions of Macbeth. OFF-BROADWAY: Waste, Don Juan, The Foreigner, Dealer's Choice, Stuff Happens, Pericles, The Merchant of Venice, On the Open Road, The Twenty-Seventh Man, Ten Chimneys. FILM: Lincoln, Julie & Julia, Hamlet, Civil Action, The Ice Storm, A Time To Kill, Quiz Show, A Simple Twist of Fate, I'm Losing You.

Photo Credit: Jennifer Broski