Hooray for Captain Slotnick?

We won't know until September how big a "hooray" to give, but I can tell you Lookingglass ensemble member and noted Billy Dec associate Joey Slotnick will play Captain Spaulding (a.k.a. the Groucho Marx role) in the Goodman's revival of Animal Crackers. Slotnick's brothers-in-arms in the Marx Brothers musical—originally staged on Broadway in 1928—include one sister: As previously announced, Molly Brennan of 500 Clown and the House Theatre will play the girl-chasing Professor (the Harpo Marx role). Steppenwolf ensemble member Ora Jones ("Mrs. Rittenhouse"/Margaret Dumont), American Blues Theatre ensemble member Ed Kross ("Horatio Jamison"/Zeppo) and New York actor Jonathan Brody ("Emmanuel Ravelli"/Chico) round out the leads. Henry Wishcamper's production, whose cast also includes Jessie Mueller, Tony Yazbeck, Mara Davi and Stanley Wayne Mathis, starts previews September 18; tickets ($25–$83) go on sale August 14. More on the casting after the jump.

When Tribune critic Chris Jones first dropped Brennan's, Jones's and Mueller's names in a blog post last month, a number of commenters took umbrage at the prospect of a woman playing the Harpo role or a black actress playing society matron Mrs. Rittenhouse. Personally, I find that attitude—much like the offense expressed by some about Phylicia Rashad's casting in the Broadway August: Osage County (which yesterday announced a June 28 closing notice)—awfully, limitingly literal, coming from folks who profess to enjoy the suspension of disbelief. But it might be worth questioning how to go about revisiting a work written so specifically for a certain group of performers. Should the Goodman cast try to ape the Marx Brothers, or build their characters from the ground up? Do Wishcamper and co. add modern-day references where the Kaufman-Riskind script tweaked then-current pop culture? What do you think about revisiting the MarxBros in a JoBros age? Are you willing to give the Goodman's 21st-century Marx Brothers a chance?