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14 December 2007

Wonderful Life

This show rehearsed locally and closes locally, but in between has toured all over the state. I thought this would be a great opportunity to compare reviewers (both professional and APAR-based) from around the region. I'll just post a sampling here, starting with this from The Charlotte Observer; I'm sure NCSC and itp will post the rest on their websites. Hope you enjoy.
BG--

From The Charlotte Observer, Sunday 2nd December 2007

Classic tale, fresh approach
Radio-style staging, sound effects add charm to `Wonderful Life'
by JULIE YORK COPPENS

"You've been given a great gift, Charlotte: a chance to see what the world would be like if you'd never lost your professional regional theater."

At least I think that's what the angel said ...

Could the fine production of "It's a Wonderful Life" now at Spirit Square be a divine visitation meant to keep Charlotte's most depressed theater fans from jumping off a bridge? I know I felt better Saturday, after the first of four performances this weekend by N.C. Stage, a professional company on loan from Asheville. The traveling show, a co-production with Asheville-based immediate theatre project, must lift spirits wherever it plays -- but especially here.

In this 1940s-style, "live radio" stage adaptation by Joe Landry, five gifted and engaging actors in vintage costumes voice the many familiar characters from Frank Capra's Christmas classic: George Bailey, a small-town banker blind to his own worth. His devoted wife, Mary, and their four adorable kids. His uncle Billy, whose dottiness, combined with the greed of town boss Mr. Potter, nearly brings disaster down on the Bailey Building and Loan. Clarence, the apprentice angel assigned to save George from suicide. Ernie the cabbie, Bert the cop, Vi the blond bombshell and all the others in tiny Bedford Falls whose lives would have been poorer, in some cases tragically so, if George had never been born.

Do we really need to experience this story again? Of course.

There's a reason "It's a Wonderful Life" remains an immortal TV presence in December, and this pared-down stage version reminds us of everything we love about the movie, often in surprising ways. How is it possible that an adult actor pretending to be little Zuzu ("Not a smidgen of temperature!") could tug at our hearts even more than 6-year-old Karolyn Grimes does on screen? Or that watching another actor mimic the crack of ice with a branch of bamboo could help us feel the chill of the lake that almost claims George's kid brother, Harry?

That's theater.

Asheville director Hans Meyer -- he also plays Clarence and other parts in the show -- keeps his fellow actors busy scoring this "Playhouse of the Air," as the faux broadcast is billed, with low-tech sound effects. A hand slapping an eggplant: That's Mr. Welch, the teacher's husband, slugging a distraught George in Martini's bar. Sure, it's a gimmick, but Landry's radio-theater approach fits the period and, far from distracting us, refreshes dialogue most viewers already know by heart.

The production's staging might be cute, but the portrayals are clear, earnest and deeply felt. Actor Willie Repoley makes the leading role his own, neither imitating nor departing radically from James Stewart's iconic screen performance. Repoley gets strong support from Lauren Fortuna (Mary), Kathryn Temple (Vi, Zuzu and others) and especially Joe Sturgeon, a man of a thousand voices (from God on down) who would have had a lucrative radio-theater career in another era.

True, Charlotte should be producing more of its own high-quality theater, not importing it from Asheville. But as George learns on that fateful Christmas Eve, when in need, there's no shame in accepting gifts from well-meaning friends. Let's accept this sweet little show as George does his own miracle, with open hearts, and be thankful that the members of N.C. Stage will be using their newly earned wings to fly back to Charlotte soon: In April, they'll bring another play with cinematic roots, Ron Hutchinson's "Gone With the Wind"-inspired comedy, "Moonlight and Magnolias," and in June, Lee Blessing's smart satire of politics and dogs, "Chesapeake."

Godspeed.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

North Carolina Stage Company and immediate theater project have once again combined their considerable talents to produce an outstanding play. It’s A Wonderful Life has been playing in venues across the Carolinas and Virginia for the past month.

Based on the movie with the same name, It’s A Wonderful Life comes to us now, produced as a live radio show. The date is December 24, 1946. It is a time when simple American values became tested as the economy grew. One individual in particular, George Bailey faces a personal crisis that will test his faith in humanity, himself, and his will to live.

I was fortunate to see it at the almost renovated Carolina Theater in Spruce Pine. The Carolina Theater was the home of the original Carolina Barn Dance, which aired live radio broadcasts in the 40’s and 50’s. Now thanks to the hard work of the Carolina Theater Preservation Association this beautiful old theater has come alive again. (www.thecarolinabarndance.org)

It occurred to me that watching a radio show could be borderline dull. Not so with this cast. The five actors in this performance were outstanding from start to finish. Their excellent acting abilities captured our attention and drew our hearts to them as they deftly switched into several different roles right before our eyes and at the same time, created their own sound effects.

They took us beyond acting. They became real to us. This surprised me because it seemed that we were set up to know that we were an audience and they were the actors. That seemed a bit too structured to work. Here we were an audience, pretending to be an audience watching a pretend radio show, which was cast by actors pretending to be radio actors.

Does that sound confusing? It wasn’t really. The actors skillfully led us through it. They pulled us into their play (which soon became our play) with their humor, their conflict, their confusion, their clarity, and their love.

Don’t take my word for it. Ask one of the hundreds of people in the audience who were held spellbound for the entire performance. Ask them were they accurately taken back to the 1940’s. Ask them did their hearts soar? Ask them was it an enchanting evening?

I can tell you their answer. It came in a spontaneous and heartfelt standing ovation that lasted long after the actors had left the stage.

Better still, see for yourself. It’s A Wonderful Life will be at North Carolina Stage Company December 18 through 23, 2007.

Anonymous said...

this is from a longer article in Charlotte's Creative Loafing, which can be found here: http://charlotte.creativeloafing.com/gyrobase/Content?oid=oid%3A232238
--BG

...Down the hall at Spirit Square in Duke Power Theatre, a five-person ensemble from North Carolina Stage Company was demonstrating how less really can be more in It's a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play. No Christmas trees among the props, nor any 1940s Radio Hour contretemps among our players. Instead, the stage is outfitted like a real radio studio with all the wondrous paraphernalia necessary to stage the beloved parable for a listener's imagination.

I can't say a single misstep marred the resourceful actors' efforts, either in voicing their many characters or producing their sound effects. George Bailey's obscure life in Bedford Falls came off every bit as worthy as the wonderful efforts of the actors to tell it down to its tiniest detail. Up in the sound booth, folks potting the mic levels occasionally let a line slip past at fully amped volume, and the softest sound effects didn't quite reach me up in the fourth row.

All that really matters in this treasurable story was vividly rendered with just the right mixture of artifice and sincerity under Hans Meyer's flawless direction. The justification for doing all this in radio style seemed to be the pace of the action and the wide vista of scenery we know from the film. But at the end, the radio concept adds its own layering of meaning: the troubles, setbacks, self-doubts, and hopelessness that George feels so keenly are as insubstantial as the hokey WBFR studio compared to the wonder of living a life anywhere when ennobled by the attempt to lift up a community and raise a wholesome family.

Willie Rapoley's earnestness as George was felicitously paired with Lauren Fortuna's steadfast belief in him as Mary, and Joe Sturgoen's gruffness as Potter was an apt counterweight. The only bad news here is that NC Stage's run with Wonderful Life is over at the Duke, though you can follow the troupe back home to Asheville, where they'll light the applause sign again December 18-23.

Otherwise, you can get over missing this wonder by catching the next two scheduled N.C. Stage invasions: Moonlight and Magnolias (April 30-May 4) and Chespeake (June 25-29).

Anonymous said...

From The Guilfordian in Greensboro
BG--
Live radio play provides laughter, entertainment - and a dash of holiday spirit
Nasimeh Easton
Issue date: 12/7/07

It's on the Time magazine list of the best movies ever made, it's #1 on the American Film Institute's list of the most inspirational American films, and generally regarded as a holiday classic loved by all. Any way you look at it, Frank Capra's 1946 film "It's a Wonderful Life" is a success.

The question is, how well does that success translate to a different medium - the stage?

The Guilford community got a chance to answer that question on Nov. 26-28, when Dana Auditorium was host to a live radio play version of the tale. Produced by the North Carolina Stage Company (NCSC) and the Immediate Theatre Project (ITP), the play is set in the studios of a fictional radio station on Dec. 24, 1946.

Entering Dana, you really did feel like you'd stepped back in time to a Christmas Eve taping of a radio play. Festive decorations adorned every set piece - from the two microphones at the front of the stage to the large table, topped with all sorts of noise-making devices, in the middle. There were even announcements over the speakers at 15, 10, and five minutes until the show began, calling the characters to their places.

When the characters traipsed onto the stage and the show began, there were some surprisingly familiar faces shining among the set's red berries and holly leaves. Four of the five actors in the show were Guilford alumi - Lauren Fortuna '00, Hans Meyer '99, Willie Repoley '00, and Kathryn Temple '96.

Two of the alumni were not only in the play, but also were the founding forces behind ITP. Meyer and Repoley created ITP in 2004, following years of collaboration on various theatre projects. Not long afterward, Fortuna joined the Asheville- based company's staff.

"It's not a coincidence that the entire production staff (of ITP) is alums," Repoley said. "There's something about how we learned to think here. It's about not falling by the wayside. It's about paying attention to everything, not just the things that seem important on the outside."This attentiveness is reflected ITP's focus on reviving and rediscovering classic American plays by showing how the core of the script is still relevant and exciting. To them, these plays often feature strong messages that are especially powerful in today's world.

"In that sense, we're a socially conscious theatre company," said Repoley. "We don't do plays that are specifically written as (social commentaries) - we're interested in a different tactic. Theatre is first and foremost about the art, but the art's not worth it if it doesn't have a social element."

Just as the members of ITP have specific reasons for putting on each play, members of an audience have specific reasons for attending. In this production's case, the play's holiday theme seemed to be the main factor for many.

"My mom wants to watch "It's a Wonderful Life" every Christmas. It's kind of cliche, but it makes you feel good and gets you in the holiday spirit," said junior Allison Murray-Nikkel. "Plus, how often do you get to see a live radio play these days?"

"I love Christmas things," said senior Jordan Spoon, motioning to a man in the audience who bore a startling resemblance to the holiday icon. "I love anything associated with Christmas - including Santa Claus."

Regardless of their reasons for attending, audiences flock to the production. This is NCSC and ITP's second year performing the show, largely due to the Asheville community's positive response to it last year. The interest in the show led the companies to branch out of their hometown and take the production on tour for the first time this year.

It was easy to see why the play did, and does, so well. The actors who played multiple roles did an astonishing job switching between them, and every actor was completely devoted to their performance throughout. The sound effects produced on stage were convincing and extremely entertaining to both hear and watch, and the presence of an "applause" sign made the experience of sitting in the audience all the better. Just as the movie eventually rose to superstardom, the play should become a holiday tradition, beloved in its own right.

I left the theatre cozied up with the same feeling of warmth and contentment the film gives me. Sure, I didn't watch this version of the tale from my couch with a cup of hot chocolate in my hand, but that didn't make the experience any less pleasing.

If anything, it made it better. This story wasn't broadcast from some station far away by people I have no connection to - it was right here in our Guilford community, produced by its very members.

That, I believe, was the best part of all.

Anonymous said...

I recently came across a blog called wnctheatre.livejournal.com and was delighted to find some reviews of local shows. I have no idea who the blogger is or how to get in touch, so for now I'm posting these without permission. If anyone knows the blogger, please check and see if they mind!
Bernhard Grier--

Allow me to preface this review by saying that I’m quite sure that I could watch It’s a Wonderful Life as a remake starring Cameron Diaz and Keanu Reeves, with Chris Tucker as Clarence, and I’d still be crying as soon as he notices his lip’s bleeding again. Okay that might be a slight exaggeration, but I’m a complete sucker for this show. That said, the radio play, adapted by Joe Landry, is a truly delightful take on the classic story, acted adeptly by the cast at North Carolina Stage Company. Willie Repoley reprised his George Bailey, and I really just love him in this role. There is clearly a temptation to do a send-up of Jimmy Stewart’s amazing performance; Repoley manages to avoid an impersonation with still a few hints in mannerism of what we all kind of want to see in the part. Lauren Fortuna and Kathryn Temple were back this year as well and were both beautiful and skilled in their various roles. Joe Sturgeon took on a variety of roles, including the narrator/host, Mr. Potter and Uncle Billy, and was an excellent addition to the cast. Director Hans Meyer made for a very charming Clarence. Last year there was a Foley artist operating all the sound effects, but this year the actors took care of this as well. Always fun to watch, and I noticed the return of the eggplant to make the sound of George’s getting punched. An enchanting experience, as always, and of course my eyes were wet for the last ten minutes or so. Damn you, Zuzu’s petals.