The holiday Classic Gets a Meta Twist at Lakewood Playhouse
If all you’ve known is a world of Decembers filled with It’s a Wonderful Life marathons, you may be surprised to find out that the 1946 Frank Capra film’s status as a beloved holiday staple was far from a certainty. Though the movie was nominated for a handful of Academy Awards, it only won an honorary technical award; it didn’t exactly light up the box office, either, losing its studio $525,000. It’s a Wonderful Life only earned its generations of fans after a snafu with its copyright meant it was relatively cheap to run on TV during the holidays.
It’s a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play is being staged at Lakewood Playhouse, as part of their holiday tradition of putting on radio play versions of classic stories. In this rendition, directed by Brittany D. Henderson, there’s an added meta structure where the actors we see on stage are playing actors in the ‘40s, who are then playing the characters we know from It’s a Wonderful Life. So, Evan Collier is playing Jake Lawrence, a radio actor who is playing George Bailey; Christina Ramirez-Michalk is Sally Applewhite as Mary; and Brie Vaughnn is Hope Merryweather as Clarence.
“You’re an audience within an audience in the play within a play, which I think some people will be surprised by,” says Henderson. “We’re trying to play with that and give folks some layers to see, in terms of performance, and even a little bit of pre-show material so those characters get established. That includes the person playing the stage manager, and the primary foley artist, who will be onstage as well.”
That added narrative level should add a welcome spin to a story that many of us know like the back of our hands. Still, for a movie as ubiquitous as It’s a Wonderful Life, there are some that may not be as familiar with the story as they think.
“Nowadays, there’s folks who have just never seen it all the way through, or who have vague notions,” says Henderson. “People may only know certain scenes as scenes you see playing in the context of another Christmas movie. ‘Everytime a bell rings, an angel gets its wings,’ for example, has been sampled in lots of different types of media. A lot of people might be surprised to hear how much what Mr. Potter says still resonates today.
“For a story taking place about a hundred years ago, there’s a lot of relevance for what’s happening in our world today,” says Henderson. “Revisiting it, you see that there’s a lot more in here than just a different take on A Christmas Carol, which is, I think, how a lot of people think about it.”
While Henderson is a well-established theater director, this will be her first time tackling the challenge of staging a live radio play. Keeping the play visually dynamic, she said, was one of the biggest priorities, especially in a show centered around actors simply standing on a stage. Then, lacking an elaborate set, there was the business of conveying the transition from George Bailey’s world to the debaucherous alternate reality of Pottersville.
“We’re bending the rules a little bit, when we get to those moments,” says Henderson. “It’s kind of like the opposite of The Wizard of Oz, coming into Technicolor — when Clarence finally comes down to George, and they’re having a chance to see what it’s like if he’d never been born, we’re breaking out of staginess and lending a little more realism to those moments. A lot of that has to be done vocally, as well, and it’s been a lot of fun to work with the actors on all the different versions of the characters they’re playing, but also to find out what it’s like to be the seedy version of this character you’ve been before.”
Whether you’ve never seen It’s a Wonderful Life, you’ve seen it a million times, or you just think you know it by heart, this is a way to experience it with new eyes.
Photos courtesy of Lakewood Playhouse.
WHAT:
It’s a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play at Lakewood Playhouse
WHEN:
December 13-29
7:30, p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, 2 p.m. Sundays
Pay what you can Sunday, December 22 at 7:30 p.m.
WHERE:
Lakewood Playhouse
5729 Lakewood Towne Center Blvd SW, Lakewood
COST:
$25-30
LEARN MORE:
https://www.lakewoodplayhouse.org/