I won't be there to see it but the Goodman Theater in Chicago will be mounting a new production of Animal Crackers in September. Apart from Cocoanuts, I can't think of another play where you have to get folks to impersonate exactly the actors who originated the roles on Broadway. When you do My Fair Lady, you might cast a Higgins who reminds people of Rex Harrison…but you don't get a guy and make him up to look like Rex Harrison and have him slavishly imitate Rex Harrison's voice. When you do Animal Crackers or Cocoanuts, however, you need to find folks who can replicate Groucho, Harpo and Chico…and if you want to be really faithful, Zeppo as well. (That's the hard part. There aren't a lot of good Zeppo Marx impersonators working these days…)
I dunno if the Goodman Theater company is doing what's customary in this kind of revival, which is to stick to the original text — probably a lot closer than the Marx Brothers ever did — but to interpolate other, more popular songs by the same composer(s). Other Irving Berlin tunes have a way of sneaking into revivals of Cocoanuts while hit tunes that Bert Kalmar and Harry Ruby wrote for other shows often turn up in new productions of Animal Crackers.
I'm not familiar with any of the actors who've been cast but you can see their names, photos and brief bios over in this section of the Goodman Theater website. The most controversial choice presumably will be that Harpo's role will be played by a woman. In most productions of Animal Crackers, Harpo did a lot of chasing ladies around stage. It should make for an interesting subtext.
Thanks to "Shiai" for reminding me that I wanted to write about this. If anyone reading this attends, I expect a full report.