Review: IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE: A LIVE RADIO PLAY Beams With Inspiration

There is a very good reason that the radio days of the '30's and '40's are described as Golden. It's not solely because the medium was so dominant. It's also because the listening experience was worth the price of gold. Transfixed by the sounds coming from the Admiral or Zenith, folks relied on their imagination to fill in the details of sets and characters.

That listening experience is revived and enlivened in the production of IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE: A LIVE RADIO PLAY, appearing now in the Encore Room at Arizona Broadway Theatre. The work is Joe Landry's clever adaptation of the screenplay by Frances Goodrich, Albert Hackett, Frank Capra, and Jo Swerling, The interpretation and staging by director/actor Tim Shawver and his fellow thespians ~ Marshall Glass, Devon Nickel, Katie Larson, Traci McCormick, and Timothy Pittman ~ are impressive, entertaining, and heartwarming.

As the players enter the room and take the stage ~ exchanging quick pleasantries with members of the audience, checking their props, and warming up ~ we are transported back to Studio A at WBFR in Manhattan. The set ~ replete with standup microphones, applause sign, and special effects table ~ perfectly captures the atmosphere of an old-time broadcast studio. It is 1946, and the classic parable of George Bailey is on the air.

Shawver and company are fun to watch as they switch between multiple roles, affecting different voices and personalities, and casually scattering the pages of their scripts after they're read. At different moments, though, I closed my eyes, simply to capture the experience of the broadcast sans visuals, to reclaim the purity of the radio experience. It worked, and it's worth doing at the very least to appreciate the cast's effectiveness in capturing the moments of George's rise and fall and reclamation and even in drawing forth a tear or two or more.

George Bailey's story is really more than a period piece or an opportunity for nostalgia or a Christmas chestnut. It's a story for all seasons and a heartwarming reminder that, in the words of Jon Kabat-Zinn, wherever you go, there you are. As distant as George's life was from the aspirations of his youth ~ to build skyscrapers and grand developments ~ and as adverse as his circumstances became ~ his father's death, the connivances of the town's imperious one-percenter, the looming insolvency of his savings and loan business ~ he was still the beneficiary of blessings that make life worth living. In his case ~ in his darkest hour, contemplating suicide ~ this revelation required the intervention of his 292 year old guardian angel.

It's a memorable tale, worth the telling, and, thanks to Shawver and company, is on the air now and through December 24th at Arizona Broadway Theatre's Encore Room.

Photo credit to Kat Barnes, Arizona Broadway Theatre

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