It’s a Wonderful Life! @ Irish Rep
It’s a Wonderful Life! is a classic Christmas movie and an end-of-year tradition for many, centering on the themes of community and the value of life.
Set in Bedford Falls, New York, George is a man with big dreams, but life keeps getting in the way. When his father dies suddenly, George is forced to forfeit the money he saved for college to take over the Building and Loan in his hometown. Before long, he falls in love, gets married, and has children, now truly stuck in Bedford Falls. He saves his town from the bank crisis preceding the Great Depression, as well as from the greed of wealthy antagonist Mr. Potter. But when $8,000 goes missing on Christmas Eve, George becomes convinced the only way to save the community he loves is to kill himself, thereby providing them with his life insurance money. Enter Clarence, Angel Second Class, who is sent to Earth to stop him and remind George of his acts of kindness and the good he has accomplished along the way.
Adapted by Anthony E. Palermo, the Irish Repertory Theatre has reimagined the piece as a live radio play. Director Charlotte Moore has arranged the stage as a recording studio, with an upright piano, vintage broadcasting microphones, and a flashing “On Air” sign setting the scene. We are introduced to five actors as they arrive for work at WIRT (sung in perfect harmony, reminiscent of 1940s advertisements) for a special Christmas Eve presentation.
The ensemble brought energy and cheer into the theatre, and I enjoyed that they (literally) switched hats to play multiple characters, but at times they were naturalistic and at others it felt like a campy, overacted homage. Although it’s an adaptation filled with tunes—including classics such as “We’ll Meet Again” and “Blue Skies”—it’s not a Broadway musical so much as a play with music.
The appeal of being part of the “live studio audience” is getting to experience the behind-the-scenes tricks of the trade. While the stage was cleverly designed to fit the space and created a realistic sound booth, and while I enjoyed the period costumes, the “radio play” aspect of the show fell flat. Rather than actors performing for the mic, the characters mostly played toward each other as in a traditional play. Although they took turns creating sound effects—footsteps on gravel, the spin of a needle on a phonograph, clinking glasses at a bar, for example—most of the Foley art was concealed upstage. When a production is advertised as a radio play, those imaginative and interesting effects should be at the forefront. It’s a great concept, and a unique point of difference from other versions of this story, so I wish they had committed more fully to the idea.
The musical direction by David Hancock Turner was lovely and added something special. His presence live on stage did much of the emotional heavy lifting, and while some songs seemed thrown in for the sake of a Christmas-carol interlude, his playing behind the actors—underscoring the dialogue throughout—was a real pleasure to listen to and contributed greatly to the atmosphere.
Overall, I expected more from this incarnation. A lot of emphasis was put on establishing the premise at the top of the play, but it was quickly forgotten. I think the piece could have benefited from either leaning wholeheartedly into the radio idea or scrapping it completely and just staging the play. Instead, it was stuck in-between and never quite found its feet. But the story remains a nice reminder at this time of year, when so many of us are looking back at what we have achieved (and often reflecting that we fell short), that with a little kindness our lives make a positive impact. It’s a meaningful story. And Clarence did get his wings.
It’s a Wonderful Life! is playing at the Francis J. Greenburger Mainstage until December 31.
