REVIEW: STNJ's Stellar Production of a Live Radio Play a Welcome Addition to the Holiday Season
By Ruth Ross
As someone old enough to have listened to radio shows as a little girl and a fan of the film, It’s a Wonderful Life, I look forward to productions of It’s a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play around the holiday season. They preserve the plot line and characters while giving us a glimpse of what goes on behind the scenes at a radio broadcast.
This year, there are six different productions of this play in central and northern New Jersey! I have reviewed the version currently onstage at the Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey in the past, and it is one that I look forward to the most.
Based on a story by Philip Van Doren Stern adapted for the stage by Joe Landry— based itself on a screenplay, by Frances Goodrich, Albert Hackett, Jo Swerling and Frank Capra—this version, complete with sound effects, commercials from the era, and a generous dose of humor and music, brings the story to life in a new way and truly fills the theatre with the spirit of the holidays.
It’s Christmas Eve 1946, and Angel 2nd Class Clarence Oddbody has yet to earn his wings. Serendipitously, the Angelmaster offers him a golden opportunity: George Bailey, faced with the loss of business funds, feels so desperate that he contemplates suicide. He had always wanted to leave Bedford Falls to see the world, but circumstances and his own good heart have led him to stay. He sacrificed his education for his brother’s, kept the family-run savings and loan afloat, protected the town from the avarice of the greedy banker Mr. Potter and married his childhood sweetheart. As he prepares to jump from a bridge, guardian angel Clarence intercedes to show him what life would have been like for the residents of Bedford Falls had he never lived, thus averting human tragedy and earning his wings.
In a medium relying on sound, not visuals, the actors’ voices are very important. A change of pitch, the use of an accent—sometimes consecutively by the same actor—enables the hearer to envision the character and moves the plot along without scenery, scene changes or props. Director Paul Mullins has the actors don various accessories and assume an array of voices as they move around the stage and interact with each other, much as occurs in a conventional stage play.
The sonorous voice of announcer Freddy Fillmore (RJ Foster, above, with Tony Roach as George Bailey) guides the broadcast, introducing commercial breaks, performing warm-up for the audience and generally keeping the production humming along. He does double (or maybe even quadruple) duty, most notably shifting from announcer to crabby, mean Mr. Potter “the richest, meanest man in the county” to the local cop.
Tony Roach’s George Bailey (left) is earnest, honest and a bit awkward—channeling Jimmy Stewart in the film role but without Stewart’s vocal tics. He’s especially fine as he observes with anguish what his hometown would be had he never been born. As George’s sweetheart Mary Hatch, Tiffany Topol (right) is a luscious peach of a girl: one who knows what she wants and fearlessly goes after it. Changing her voice, she instantly “becomes” little Zuzu, the Baileys’ youngest child who is sick. A marvelous Tina Stafford shimmies around in a violet dress as the town’s femme fatale, Violet Bick; purses her lips as George’s mother; and boasts an Italian accent as the accordion-playing bar owner Martini (below, left; yes, she does play the accordion).
Assuming various roles—bumbling Uncle Billy Bailey (above, first row, right), whose ineptitude nearly brings down the family business; Old Man Gower, the pharmacist George saves from a tragic mistake; Ernie the cab driver and, most importantly, the Foley artist providing sound effects—Paul Henry provides superb support.
Rounding out the cast, Andy Paterson (above), a staple of STNJ’s holiday productions, returns to play George’s little brother Harry and, most notably, A2C Clarence, the lovable angel-in-training who has waited 298 years for this chance and makes the most of it by rescuing George Bailey from mortal harm. His poignant recital of Bedford Falls without George conveys the play’s real message: No man is a failure who has friends. Every life is wonderful and meaningful, no matter one’s social status—education or economic. In an era when we hear, over and over, that some citizens of our country feel ignored, denigrated and insignificant, it’s a lesson that bears repetition.
As always, kudos to the troupe for the usual high production values. Steven Beckel’s sound design includes 1940s music and commercials to enhance the radio broadcast “feel.” Set designer Sarah Beth Hall has created an authentic broadcast station, complete with six mics, chairs for the actors and Applause and On the Air signs that flash when needed. And Austin Blake Conlee’s costumes highlight the time period and telegraph the personalities of the characters who wear them. Kevin Gartley’s lighting design draws our attention to those speaking.
Of interest to note: Ostensibly, the actors “read” from scripts during the play’s first act, but they drop the pretense in the second, most dramatic, act, signaling to us that they fully inhabit the characters they’re playing and turning a radio play into a real theatrical one.
Lest you think a live radio play eschews the drama inherent in a theatrical production, that the actors playing the actors playing characters use their voices so well is testament to the ability of radio broadcasts to create an entire world for us. The result is a production appropriate for the entire family, a production you won’t want to miss.
It’s a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play will be performed at the F.M. Kirby Shakespeare Theatre, 36 Madison Ave., Madison (on the campus of Drew University) through December 28. For information and tickets, call the box office at 973.408.5600 or visit www.ShakespeareNJ.org online.