As Radio Schtick, It’s Charming

I dislike “It’s a Wonderful Life,” the movie, all that mushy sentimentality.

But “It’s a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play” is charming. Somehow even words as banal as gosh, golly and gee sound just right coming from the five actors who play all the roles — more than 40 — in this clever 1996 adaptation of the movie by Joe Landry, a Connecticut native. And when the actors are the talented ensemble now performing at Shakespeare & Company, the show is fast-paced, never maudlin, with delightful musical and sound-effects surprises.

Conceived as a live radio broadcast on Christmas Eve from a CBS Radio studio in New York City, the play is performed on a set with flashing applause signs, period microphones, an upright piano, a xylophone, two tables of sound effects objects, even a violin.

As the audience comes into the cozy Bernstein Theatre, the cast is in 1940s street clothes preparing for “The Jack Holloway Show” ’s annual Christmas broadcast with holiday music and a performance of “It’s a Wonderful Life.” The cast greets the audience, mingles, watches the clock for starting time. Then disaster: The sound effects man has been delayed, so the cast must perform the effects as well as the play.

David Joseph, a luminous star among the company’s men, delivers a grand performance as Holloway, who plays George Bailey, the Job-like hero of “Life.” Joseph starts the “broadcast” with a lovely rendition of “The Christmas Song” — who knew he could sing so well — before launching into the story of little Bedford Falls; Bailey’s shaky savings and loan business; the grasping, greedy Mr. Potter, who wants to own everything and everyone in town; George’s inept uncle and partner, Uncle Billy, whose forgetfulness leads to George’s near-suicide; and Clarence, George’s guardian angel, who just wants to earn his wings.

He is joined in strength by Ryan Winkles, that slightly-built chameleon who can move seamlessly from Shakespearean tragedy to French farce and who sings, and quite well, too. Winkles gives us both George’s father and brother, Clarence the angel and George’s young sons. Jonathan Croy, an older company regular — he once said he got all the “bald” roles — is by turns a stentorian announcer, a slimy Mr. Potter, even a confused Uncle Billy.

The women in the cast are good, if not as strong as the men. Sarah Jeanette Taylor plays radio star Sally Applewhite, who takes on the character of Mary Hatch, eventually George’s wife. (Before the show, Taylor/Applewhite moves about the theater holding Zoe, a very small, very black, very fluffy dog she invites people to meet and pet.) Her sweet Mary eventually displays a strength and spirit that surprises both us and George. Jennie M. Jadow plays all the other female roles in the story, from children to George and Mary’s mothers. Her accents and vocal weights are spot on.

Director Jenna Ware keeps her play and cast moving at a lively pace. Her masterful direction is marred only by the odd decision to place the “commercial break” — intermission for playgoers — two-thirds of the way through the evening. 

“It’s a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play” continues weekends at Shakespeare & Co. in Lenox, MA, through Dec. 28. For tickets call 413-637-3353 or go to www.shakespeare.org.

For a listing of other area productions of this play, check our website calendar at Tricornernews.com.