CORNERSTONE MULTICULTURAL `YOU CAN TAKE IT' INTRIGUES.

Byline: Evan Henerson Theater Critic

THE STRENGTH of any Cornerstone Theater Company adapted classic - be it ``Twelfth Night, ``The Seagull'' or ``The Knight of the Burning Pestle'' - is whether the newly applied cultural overlay helps shed new light on the work or the community performing it. So an adaptation of George Kaufman and Moss Hart's ``You Can't Take It With You,'' set in the present day among L.A. Muslim families is, to say the least, an intriguing idea.

The Hart estate may have authorized Peter Howard's adaptation. After seeing how director Mark Valdez and his large cast have worked the ``American Muslim Remix,'' you wish Howard had taken the idea further. Or chucked the book and spun off into a different direction. And although Cornerstone typically mixes professional actors and enthusiastic community members to strong effect, in ``You Can't Take It With You,'' the gap between the strong actors and the amateurs is significant.

Truth be told, the differences between the eccentric Abd-ul Rahman family and the more traditional Khans - whose children are hoping to marry - don't seem all that unbridgable. OK, so Grandpa Khan (Avner Garbi) keeps snakes and attends college graduations. So the older sister hangs with a spiritual rapper. So people come to the Abd-ul Rahman house and just sort of stay for years. Is this really brouhaha worthy?

Mr. Khan (played by Shishir Kurup) thinks it is. And since his son Ajmal (Omi Vaidya) is sweet on uneccentric Abd-ul Rahman daughter Salmah (Sondos Kholoki-Kahf), there is trouble in paradise.

Kurup's Khan is a riot. Yeah, the guy's a little too stiff, but there's a wicked glimmer in the actor's eye that suggests that uptight Mr. Khan might not be far away from an important transformation. K.T. Thangavelu as Khan's subdued wife handles her one scene expertly as well. Within the loony Abd-ul Rahman family, Albena Dodeva shines as matriarch Sameerah, who is working on a ``Middle East meets 'The West Wing' '' pilot because eight years ago, someone sent a laptop to the home by mistake.

We've seen the prototype of these characters many times before. The Carmichaels and Sycamores that Kaufman and Hart created may be a little different, but we're supposed to know that they make up a loving, caring family. That same sense of identity and purpose trickles into Cornerstone's ``American Muslim Remix.'' The Abd-ul Rahmans and the Khans just have to realize that there are far more important things to worry about than whether a collector of antique cricket bats is less worthy of censure than a guy who poses for portraits.

Incidentally, some references simply don't update. Here's betting that the number of people in L.A. who would find a hopeful screenwriter the least bit unusual is roughly 0. That's also about how much time the FBI would wait before investigating a Muslim family in L.A. that was working with explosives in a treehouse.

Evan Henerson, [phone]

evan.henerson(at)dailynews.com

YOU CAN'T TAKE IT WITH YOU: AN AMERICAN MUSLIM REMIX - Three stars

Where: Los Angeles Theatre Center, 514 S. Spring St., downtown.

When: 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, 3 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays; through Oct. 26.

Tickets: $20. Call [phone].

In a nutshell: A surprisingly tame and none-too-insightful re-examination of the Kaufman and Hart classic.

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Omi Vaidya and Sondos Kholoki-Kahf star is Cornerstone Theater's reworking of the Kaufman and Hart classic ``You Can't Take It With You.''