Maryland Morning theater critic J. Wynn Rousuck reviews It’s a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play, which continues at Center Stage through December 21.
The Rousuck Review of "It's a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play" at Centerstage:
“It’s a Wonderful Life” is, well, a wonderful movie. It’s heartwarming, but gritty. And it’s brimming with can-do American spirit, particularly when it comes to the plight of the individual against the forces of big business – a political statement that, unfortunately, remains timely.
A year after Frank Capra’s classic movie debuted, “It’s a Wonderful Life” was adapted for radio, a common practice at the time. Using that model, playwright Joe Landry created “It’s a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play.” This popular regional theater holiday offering is now at Center Stage. The production is entertaining, but may give pause to enthusiasts of radio and Frank Capra.
In Landry’s version, as in “I Love Lucy Live on Stage,” which played the Hippodrome in October, theatergoers become the studio audience at a live broadcast.
As fans of “It’s a Wonderful Life” will remember, protagonist George Bailey owns a small building and loan in fictitious Bedford Falls – a business he struggles to keep out of the clutches of the town’s richest man, mean old Mr. Potter.
That’s Joseph McGranaghan as George, standing up to Potter. George’s story is told in flashback to his guardian angel, Clarence, who comes into George’s life at its lowest ebb. Clarence turns George’s life around by showing him what Bedford Falls would’ve been like if he’d never been born. Oh yes, and this takes place on Christmas eve.
Okay, it’s hokey, but it’s got some thematic heft. Frank Capra – whom I interviewed for the Sun years ago -- described himself as “a social force in films.” He exemplified the little man taking on the system.
But serious themes -- and character development -- get short shrift in Landry’s adaptation and its interpretation by director Nelson T. Eusebio III at Center Stage. Between the radio conceit and the fact that only five actors play, basically, the entire town, there’s not much room for depth.
For instance, Ken Krugman is amusing carrying on both sides of a conversation between snarling Mr. Potter and George’s stuttering, sweet Uncle Billy, but Krugman’s Potter is a caricature – the villain out of an old-time melodrama.
As George, Joseph McGranaghan doesn’t register enough desperation or exuberance or undergo much of a change. Only Chiara Motley, as George’s wife, Mary, successfully imbues her character with sincerity and heart.
The production gives up most efforts to simulate a radio broadcast fairly early on. The actors abandon their microphones and scripts. There’s a cute moment when George and Mary fall in love and toss their pages in the air. But the audience is left untethered. Where are we? A radio show or a stage play?
This gets even blurrier in a scene where adult actors crawl on the floor as George and Mary’s children – especially male actors speaking in low voices. It’s a choice that doesn’t work for radio or the stage.
To add to the confusion, an on-stage sound effects man continues in true radio-style after the actors shed their scripts. Admittedly, he’s great fun. Versatile musician Anthony Stultz toots a cab horn when a sexy woman waltzes by; swishes water in a barrel when a character falls through the ice; and bangs trashcan lids when a drunken reveler stumbles home. Stultz is in his prime when we learn what George did during World War II.
Center Stage calls this radio show “WBAL Playhouse of the Air” and includes commercials for two favorite Baltimore products. I won’t spoil the surprise by revealing which ones.
This isn’t the first stage adaptation of “Wonderful Life.” Washington’s Arena Stage produced a musical version in 1991, complete with roller-skating angels. That version proved what this one doesn’t -- that an adaptation needs to improve on, or at least bring out something new in its source. Instead, “It’s a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play” takes a moving movie about resilience and the power of the individual and turns it into a holiday trifle – pleasant, but insubstantial.
-- J. Wynn Rousuck
