Review: MIRACLE ON 34TH STREET at The Phoenix Theatre Company

Guest contributor David Appleford renders a Holiday good cheer for The Phoenix Theatre Company’s production of MIRACLE ON 34th STREET: A LIVE MUSICAL RADIO SHOW.

From 1934 to 1955, the Lux Radio Theatre ran a series of hour-long radio programs adapted from popular films. Initially, they were Broadway plays, but after their first two seasons, they turned to Hollywood. All broadcasts were performed before a live studio audience.

One of those broadcasts was MIRACLE ON 34th STREET starring most of the original cast from the film.  Performing now until December 28 at The Phoenix Theatre Company’s more intimate Hormel Theatre is a musical based directly on the broadcast script. Its full title is    MIRACLE ON 34th STREET: A LIVE MUSICAL RADIO SHOW.

It was adapted by Lance Arthur Smith with a new score by Jon Lorenz, who incorporates his original songs and mixes them among the traditional carols and the several humorous radio broadcast jingles littered throughout the hour. It's a lively, warm show that for over 90 minutes plus intermission evokes a pleasant memory of a bygone era when radio drama could dominate a family's evening entertainment.  This was particularly true at Christmas when, even if you were spending the holidays home alone, seasonal radio could wrap cozy yuletide feelings around you, mixed with a wonderful dose of comforting sentimentality. At Christmas, radio was always good company.

One of the evening's fun concepts is that no matter where you're seated in the house, you are in the show. "Thanks so much for being part of our live studio audience,” the show’s narrator (Steve Hilderbrand) announces.

When you enter the theatre, particularly if you’re taking your seat early, you’ll have the chance to look over Douglas Clarke’s detailed scenic design of an early radio studio ready for Christmas. In addition to the standing microphones and the overall sense of forties vintage radio, the stage is flanked by two Applause signs that regularly light up or flash, giving the audience a visual clue of what it needs to do.  There's no Laugh sign, but as the narrator instructs before the play begins, "If you find something funny, feel free to laugh and laugh loud so Uncle Tim and Aunt Betty, who are listening at home, can hear you.”

Once assembled and individually introduced to the audience, the cast of seven players present their characters with a reassuring, authentic sense of warmth that helps us immediately connect. With the exception of the show’s main announcer, all actors double-up, portraying additional characters. Even Hilderbrand takes on extra duties as the show’s music director/piano player, plus he’s the production’s Foley Artist (radio sound effects, as in the ringing of bells or the closing of doors).

Each cast member is listed in the program by their forties character names. A perfectly cast Scott Davidson is listed as radio actor Kristofer van Lisberg who, once the broadcast begins, becomes the show's white-bearded Kris Kringle. Matravius Avent lends his silky smooth vocals to the likable Grady Williams who, in addition to smaller voice roles, plays handsome Fred Gaily, the lawyer looking for his own miracle at Christmas. 

Krista Monaghan is Cordelia Ragsdale, fully relatable in her portrayal of the doubting Doris Walker, Macy’s public relations expert and mother to young Susan Walker. Susan was the part made famous by Natalie Wood in the film, but here she’s played by two local talents on different evenings, London Cairney and Parker Pitt, both extraordinary young performers that local audiences may have previously seen lighting up the stage at Valley Youth Theatre. 

Rounding out the cast are Amy Jo Halliday as Olivia Glatt - “She sings, she dances!” - and Michael Kary as Wallace Ainsley - “My, is it just me or are you hot in here?  It’s definitely me.” -  who both create the myriad of extra characters that briefly appear and make up the story.  

If you’re overly familiar with the piece due to repeat December views of the film, the show’s narrative will offer no surprises. Unlike the more dark and brooding manner of the 1994 big-screen remake, which changed the twist ending in the climactic courtroom scene to something less satisfying and not as clever, this radio version sticks with how it was originally done. 

For a play where most of the time all characters are standing behind the mic in a cramped forties studio, director Chelsea Anderson keeps her players moving around the set in such an exuberant, high-spirited fashion, what could normally seem like a static presentation in a restrictive area becomes surprisingly lively. 

Curiously, director Anderson has neglected to have her characters hold the one thing any radio broadcast actor would require when performing: the pages of the script. A stage actor needs to learn lines and be off-book before performing. Radio is different. Other than a glance over the script, being off-book for radio voices was not required; they would always have the script in hand. Not only would it eliminate the on-air silence of an actor forgetting a line – and the deadliest sin of radio, after all, is dead-air – visually, from the perspective of a stage presentation, it gives the actors a little extra business to handle and further enhances the feel that audiences are truly watching a real radio broadcast. Several productions up and down the country often use this device. Here for whatever reason, director Anderson has chosen not to.

Ultimately though, MIRACLE ON 34th STREET: A LIVE MUSICAL RADIO SHOW, as presented by The Phoenix Theatre Company, nicely mixes the magic and charm of the holiday with a sense of nostalgia for old-time radio. The original Lux Radio Theatre broadcast can be found on YouTube, and it's fun to hear what audiences heard back in the forties when the family gathered together around the warm glow of their radio in the living room, next to the heavily-decorated tinsel-covered Christmas tree. But even hearing the real thing doesn't match entering the Hormel Theatre, taking your seat, and then finding you're part of the show. It makes for a perfectly pleasant and heartwarming live theatre experience, which is exactly what MIRACLE ON 34th STREET: A LIVE MUSICAL RADIO SHOW is all about.

The Phoenix Theatre Company ~ www.phoenixtheatre.com ~ Box office: 602-254-2151 ~ 1825 N. Central Avenue, Phoenix, AZ

Photo credit to Brennen Russell: Scott Davidson as Kristofer van Lisberg

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