Review: ‘It’s a Wonderful Life -- A Live Radio Play’ at Stages Theatre

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Resourceful nostalgia carries ‘It’s a Wonderful Life -- A Live Radio Play’ at Stages Theatre in Fullerton. Joe Landry’s take on the Frank Capra holiday film classic transpires in a 1940s radio studio, where director Rayanne Thorn’s versatile ensemble does yeoman work to evoke the golden age of live broadcasts.

After we’ve assembled in the mini-stadium venue, announcer Freddie Fillmore (Connor Keene) introduces the KBFR Players, some of whom have passed us in the lobby, and we’re off to Bedford Falls. Landry’s adaptation adheres to the screenplay, though it compresses some sequences and axes others. As ever, the narrative follows selfless George Bailey (Tracy Marquis), who, after a lifetime of doing right by everyone but himself, reaches suicidal meltdown on Christmas Eve, when his guardian angel (Michael Skinner) offers him a wholly Capra-esque opportunity.

The story’s homespun moral retains the power to moisten eyes, and the show that contains it is charming. Thorn’s staging maintains the airwave aspect to a noteworthy degree, incorporating tongue-in-cheek commercials and keeping anachronistic behavior at bay.

Though Marquis registers less noble as George than originator Jimmy Stewart, he and Irene Meyers’ low-key Mary are serviceable, at times joining their colleagues in playing almost 40 characters. The youthful Keene’s Southern dialect as miserly Mr. Potter may be jarring against memories of Lionel Barrymore, but he certainly makes a hat-switching meal out of Potter’s faceoff with George’s father. Skinner gives angel Clarence quiet directness, Uncle Billy a winning feistiness. Tiina Mittler and Tara Pitt sail through their women’s (and some men’s) roles, while deadpan Alexander Price, who narrates and provides the Foley sound effects, almost steals the show.

You can imagine a plusher ‘Wonderful Life,’ but it’s hard to picture a more warmly unassuming one. The property’s enduring point and everyone’s sense of era style counters passing incongruities.

-- David C. Nichols

‘It’s a Wonderful Life -- A Live Radio Play,’ Stages Theatre, 400 E. Commonwealth Ave., Fullerton. 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, 3 p.m. Sundays. Ends Jan. 4. $18. (714) 525-4484. Running time: 1 hour, 35 minutes.