It's a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play

by Joe Landry

This beloved American holiday classic comes to captivating life as a live 1940s radio broadcast. With the help of an ensemble that brings a few dozen characters to the stage, the story of idealistic George Bailey unfolds as he considers ending his life one fateful Christmas Eve.

Genres: Plays, Christmas

92 pages, Paperback

First published August 17, 2006

Reviews

[Nikki · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love this! Currently working on it with a theatre group on Staten Island and it really is a beautiful play.

[Javier Fernandez · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought that presenting this classic as a simulated radio broadcast would be hokey, but actually it turned out to be pretty neat and was a bonus lagniappe of entertainment.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

Everyone, and I mean everyone, must be familiar with the plot of this show based on the movie staring Jimmy Stewart. But, a local theatre group has asked me to direct this show for them to be produced at the beginning of December, 2020, in the middle of the COVID-19 crisis. After reading the show, I think the may be on to something.

A few concessions will need to be made to historic accuracy but this can be done. For instance, a radio show such as this in 1946 would have all of the actors working around 2 mikes. We will have a mike for each actor for health reasons. In addition, our actors will have seats spread around the stage and not clustered together as they would have been in a real redio studio. But this has nothing to do with the quality of the play itself.

I was quite impressed by how well this show was put together and maintained the spirit if the original material. It seems to move briskly but slows when it needs to for emphasis. The fact that it is designed to be performed by only 5 talented actors voicing multiple roles makes this ideal at this time of “social distancing”. (The show can be done by up to 25 actors.) This allows us to space our actors the required distance apart on stage plus we may do some rehearsals using Zoom.

As another reviewer, Rachel Pollock, has said "This one tells the cornball holiday tale with only five actors, using the conceit of a "live audience for a radio station's broadcast" set in 1946. Fun Foley-artist sound effects, cheesy commercial jingles for fake products, smart 1940s costumes for the cast. Sounds like a good time to me."

[Samantha Lea · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thanks to Joe Landry, we have an accessible script for a profound story. Taking the original plot and placing it in the context of a radio studio, he tells George’s Bailey’s complete journey. The concept of old fashioned radio is also a delightful homage to the time period of It’s A Wonderful Life. Furthermore, from a staging standpoint, the limited cast makes this achievable anywhere. The entire work is simultaneously complex and simple. Brilliant.

[Esme · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sentimental and nostalgic in a way...

[Melissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Holiday classic!

[Caleb Beard · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reads well as an adaptation of the movie

[Phillip · Rating 3 out of 5]

As a performance piece, it's an interesting idea to do a live radio play. I've never seen one done before, but I will be performing in this in Dec. 2023, so I'll get to experience a staged radio play first hand.

I'm not a big fan of the It's A Wonderful Life story--I'm a Halloween man by instinct, and the schmaltzy Christmas cheer of this story rubs me the wrong way. It's especially irritating that George Bailey--the "hero" of the story--is continually denied the only two things he wants out of life (seeing Europe and going to college) in order to satisfy everyone else's needs and desires. He continually sacrifices himself, and others sacrifice him, to meet a standard of decency and morality that he doesn't entirely believe in. And the kind of fucked up part is that when Clarence, an angel, comes down to show George why he shouldn't kill himself, the best argument Clarence can make is "look how much worse EVERYONE ELSE'S life would be if you were never born." Even the argument for why George's life was so good was that his sacrifices and suffering helped others. Not that things were good FOR HIM, that he made things good for others. George should not only sacrifice himself, but he should like it.
https://youtu.be/ZJPBf12yIB4

[Rachel Pollock · Rating 4 out of 5]

Because of work and graduate study, i read a lot of playscripts, and this marks the first one for 2012 (first book overall). For all that i find the source material to be fairly unbearable pap--the movie was never something i watched at the holidays, i come from a "Christmas Carol" family when we're talking holiday movies i watched every year as a kid--the script reads like a heckuva lot of fun to produce.

It fits solidly into a trend of plays these days that feature a reduced cast of actors presenting an epic story, a structure that plays well with talented actors and utilizes the medium of theatre doing what it does best (when done well), but which also works nicely for theatre companies strapped by economic woes who still want to produce epic stories with lots of characters.

This one tells the cornball holiday tale with only five actors, using the conceit of a "live audience for a radio station's broadcast" set in 1946. Fun Foley-artist sound effects, cheesy commercial jingles for fake products, smart 1940s costumes for the cast. Sounds like a good time to me.

[Kelli Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

I can’t wait to preform this play and hope all who cone out enjoy it and much as we have preparing it.