Part of HappenStance Productions’ cachet is in staging solid crowd-pleasing entertainment, but a large proportion lies in choosing projects that agree with the Andiamo Novi upstairs theater that it’s occupied for a string of productions. With the Christmas season in full swing, and most favorite holiday tales requiring expansive casts and settings, the company now takes a winning scaled-down approach to a time-tested classic. With playwright Joe Landry’s It’s a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play, director Aaron T. Moore blends front-and-center character work with backstage magic, putting engaging new packaging on a story many viewers know by heart.
It may be 2011 in the surrounding Italian restaurant and martini lounge, but here it’s December 24, 1946, in the studio of Detroit City radio station WAND. The premise is efficiently established in a few deft strokes, as the sharply attired players welcome the audience to the live broadcast and entertain them with a handful of a cappella carols while making their last-minute preparations for the show. By the time the stage manager calls the countdown and the on-air light toggles on, it’s easy to believe the illusion, especially given the practiced professionalism of this ensemble. The broadcast itself is presented in a single block of three major acts, which are broken up by quick breaks and cute ads from laughable “sponsors.” In all, the show runs less than two hours at a single stretch, quite a bit shy of the original film's running time.
Watching five people speak the lines of a cherished holiday movie may sound like the stuff that naps are made of, but in practice, this production is rich with distinctive visual and auditory curiosity. There’s a hierarchy at play, from the immediacy of the downstage microphones, at which nearly all the dialogue is delivered, to the background properties table crammed with frequently employed sound effects paraphernalia, whose incorporation is a great added layer to the performances. Just as the viewer vividly remembers a character storming out of a scene, an actor is at the ready with a slamming door; when a panicked scene at a winter pond is called for, there’s FX for that. This is how the production confirms its firm roots as a stage play rather than a strictly auditory experience: closing one’s eyes to merely listen woefully overlooks the precision flow of stage traffic and small, appreciable moments of preparation as performers don and shed their various characters or wait with various noisemakers held gingerly aloft.
The script itself is a faithful enough reproduction of the 1946 Frank Capra film It’s a Wonderful Life, a story of a decent, hardworking man who prays for, and receives, some heavenly Christmas Eve guidance just when he is at his lowest. (Readers requiring more of a plot synopsis are encouraged to find it anywhere they look; this review is long enough already.) Among the five actors, three play a number of characters large and small, and Kevin C. Young and Katie Galazka (almost) exclusively voice protagonist George Bailey and his wife, Mary. Young’s George has a bravado that allows him to dabble with missteps and passing selfishness, but equally well suits his return to the bedrock of right and good as he matures; the voice is not a Jimmy Stewart impression by any means, but something about the inflection recalls it in a satisfying way. Galazka is all no-nonsense warmth as Mary, a devoted partner whose patient determination is matched only by her generous spirit. Among a plethora of wives and mothers, Kirsten Knisely lights up in her portrayal of Violet Bick, a misfit whose big-city dreams and demonstrative appeal finds her always at the precipice of a tarty reputation. In addition to delivering erstwhile narration as the divine bigwig Joseph, Joel Mitchell nails down a number of distinct “character”-type voices, the finest of which is the odious growl of Mr. Potter, that opportunist and Scrooge incarnate. Finally, Patrick O’Reilly’s best work is the bumbling pluck that perfectly encapsulates long-underfoot Clarence Oddbody, the second-class angel tasked with opening George’s eyes to the cumulative effect that his unselfish decisions and small-scale reach has had on those around him.
In all, It’s a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play readily invokes a Christmas favorite without simply aping the original. There’s no harm in returning to a familiar story told well by accomplished performers, and this production benefits from added behind-the-scenes fascination, a charming reminder of the era in which the source originated. Viewers who know the movie should find something to enjoy in watching the story come together in this unexpected way onstage; those who adore the movie will find its iconic moments, uplifting goodwill, and resounding message well intact.