This holiday season, the Gamm Theatre presents It’s a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play for the fifth time. “It’s our fourth time live,” said the Gamm’s Artistic Director, Tony Estrella. “One year – our canceled season – we did the show on NPR.”
So are the folks at the Gamm trying to turn this show into a holiday tradition like Trinity Rep’s “A Christmas Carol?” “Who knows?” says Estrella. “Very few things have the juggernaut staying power of Dickens. That’s the greatest piece of literature ever in my mind.”
But to Estrella, It’s a Wonderful Life is “kind of the American ‘Christmas Carol,’ and a wonderful complement to it.” Estrella will once again play George Bailey, the show’s main character. “Jeff Church played George last year, but he’s in ‘Christmas Carol’ this year,” so Estrella’s jumping back in.
For those who don’t know, “It’s a Wonderful Life” focuses on George Bailey, a pillar of his community forced into running the family business, a local bank. It’s 1945, and World War II is ending. All is well with George’s life until a deposit goes missing, sending the bank and Bailey into a tailspin. He thinks the only way out is suicide, but an angel steps in to show him what life would have been like had he never been born. In the end, it’s a story of redemption, ending with the line, “No man is a failure who has friends.” (Sorry, but I don’t think that’s a spoiler.)
“We’re excited to be back at it again,” said Estrella. “I’ve been doing all my prep work, including looking at last year’s video.” Now that Hangmen, the Gamm’s current production, has opened, Estrella can focus his energies on It’s a Wonderful Life.
The show is presented as a “live” radio show, complete with a sound effects artist, “so it’s a little more difficult to reinvent,” says Estrella. “We’re reinvigorating the productions we’ve already had.”
Estrella finds it important to stay true to the original. “There’s no ‘what if we did this?’ happening. We don’t break the form. We have to trust the simplicity of what this version offers.”
The original production’s director, Damon Kiley, built this version. “So, it’s his show. Call this a remount.” The aim, says Estrella, is to “really hook the audience into listening. If we can get grown men crying, that means we’re doing our job.”
Many actors from the previous productions are returning to the show, with a couple of new performers added. “It’s a joy to do this every night,” says Estrella. “We finish with George’s reclamation, and sing ‘Auld Lang Syne.’” That’s when the grown men start crying.”
The Gamm Theatre in Warwick presents “It’s a Wonderful Life,” December 9 – 24, ending with a Christmas Eve matinee. On December 14, the Gamm will host a Winter’s Delight, their annual holiday fundraiser, with a party and the show as the centerpiece of the evening. For tickets and information, call 401.723.4266 or visit www.gammetheatre.org.
