In a review that first appeared in the New York Times on December 15,1936, noted critic Atkinson related the simple pleasures of Hart and Kaufman's play, particularly its eagerness to please an audience.

Moss Hart and George S. Kaufman have written their most thoroughly ingratiating comedy, You Can't Take It With You, which was put on at the Booth last evening. It is a study in vertigo about a lovable family of hobby-horse riders, funny without being shrill, sensible without being earnest. In Once in a Lifetime, Mr. Hart and Mr. Kaufman mowed the audience down under a machine-gun barrage of low comedy satire, which was the neatest trick of the season. But you will find their current lark a much more spontaneous piece of hilarity; it is written with a dash of affection to season the humor and played with gayety and simple good spirit. To this...