There are some things you can take with you — off stage

By Wayne Harada
Advertiser Entertainment Editor

From left, Jim Tharp, Connie Ditch and Harold Burger star in the Hawai'i Pacific University Theatre revival of "You Can't Take It With You." The show premieres tonight at HPU's Windward campus. 'You Can't Take It With You' A comedy by Moss Hart and George S. Kaufman, produced by HPU Theatre Premieres at 8 p.m. today; repeats at 7:30 p.m. Thursdays, 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, 4 p.m. Sundays, through May 5 Hawai'i Pacific University Theatre, HPU Windward campus. 45-045 Kamehameha Highway, Kane'ohe $14 general; $10 seniors, military, students, HPU staff; $5 HPU students 375-1282

"I don't do trial work," said Tharp, who will be 60 in November. "But for lawyers, posturing in court requires a lot of theatrics. It's not necessarily a circus, nor a dishonest way to present an idea, but it is an effective way. If you put a positive spin on it, there is a benefit to 'acting' within law."

Tharp plays Grandpa in Hawai'i Pacific University Theatre's revival of Hart and Kaufman's "You Can't Take It With You," premiering tonight at HPU's theater on the Windward campus.

"Grandpa is kind of a mixture of older men I've known in my life," said Tharp. "My maternal grandfather, for instance. Real sharp, with a sense of humor, a sense of irony, with a pretty good grasp on the world."

Tharp admitted Grandpa "is the kind of personality I'd like to be when I get old."

While a specific age for Grandpa is not mentioned in the script, Tharp believes that the character is happy as a lark, retired from a Wall Street job for the past 35 years. "It's implied that he retired when he was a relatively young man, getting out of the rat race. Something I think we all wish for."

Tharp was attracted to the play because of the director, Joyce Maltby. "She's fabulous, and this show, in particular, takes a good director to pull off, because of some complicated scenes in terms of movement of dialogue and action."

Further, he said the humor of the piece has stood the test of time, another reason to get involved in a theatrical classic.

Set in the 1930s, "You Can't Take It With You" is about an off-center family, the Sycamores, and another clan, the Kirbys. A son of the Kirbys falls in love with the daughter of the Sycamores and a dinner at the Sycamore home, on the wrong night with cheap food, is hardly the kind of thing that invited family hopes for.

"Everyone's a bit eccentric, except Grandpa, who is the glue that holds everything together," said Tharp.

He's not about to quit his law practice to consider a full-time acting career, and admits law was part of his life well before theatrics. He was typecast only once previously.

"I played Queen Lili'uokalani's lawyer, in a play that toured the Neighbor Islands, on the 100th anniversary of the overthrow of the government," he said.

That gave him the initial inkling that lawyers often act in court.

"My day job is my law practice," he said. "Stage roles enable me to let off steam. Some lawyers play golf. My passion is theater."