Theater review: Ross Valley Players’ ‘It’s A Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play’ an absolute delight

Probably every living American has seen Frank Capra’s classic film “It’s a Wonderful Life,” with Jimmy Stewart as George Bailey, the selfless fighter for small-town justice in fictional Bedford Falls, New York.

Each December, the televised film runs pretty much round-the-clock as part of traditional holiday fare. Deservedly so: It’s not merely one of the greatest redemption stories in our culture, but also a delightful piece of Americana.

Sixty years after the film’s 1946 debut, Joe Landry reimagined Philip Van Doren Stern’s original story “The Greatest Gift” as a live radio play performed in a New York City broadcast studio.

Ross Valley Players’ production of his adaptation adheres exactly to the film’s storyline, while adding you-are-there realism. The Barn Theatre’s compact stage has been transformed into the quite plausible Studio A of Manhattan radio station WBFR, complete with an applause sign for the audience, a piano, guitar and ukulele, and two tables full of props for sound effects — all performed by a cast of five while voicing multiple characters. There’s even a small office stage right, where an authentic 1940s typewriter and an old wooden desk are visible through the door.

Fundamental stagecraft is superb: Set design by Mikiko Uesugi, set construction by Michael Walraven, props by Dianne Harrison, costumes by Michael A. Berg and sound design by Billie Cox all contribute to an extraordinary sense of verisimilitude. Theatergoers with an aversion to anachronisms (things not of their time, such as Roman soldiers wearing sunglasses) can set aside their reservations. “It’s a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play” gets as close to the late 1940s as we might imagine — minus the heavy drinking and ubiquitous cigarettes.

Director Adrian Elfenbaum extracts a phenomenal performance from all five of his incredibly talented actors in this 90-minute, no-intermission show. Loren Nordlund astounds as studio announcer Freddie Filmore, who engages the show’s local and nationwide audience, performs multiple parts and plays the piano. Evan Held, a prolific North Bay performer, does a spectacular job as Jake Laurents, the actor tasked with playing George Bailey. Held’s George is desperate and heartbreakingly honest.

Multi-talented Malcolm Rodgers appears as guitar-playing Harry “Jazzbo” Heywood, who voices the part of the somewhat inept angel Clarence Odbody, assigned by the Almighty to guide George through an ever-growing crisis. Molly Rebekka Benson plays Lana Sherwood, who has the unenviable challenge of playing multiple characters, as does Elenor Irene Paul as Sally Applewhite, whose primary character is Mary, George’s loyal, long-suffering wife.

All performers do an exquisite job of creating consistently recognizable characters through voice alone, and never falter in bringing them back, even when it’s little more than a throwaway line or a child’s comment in the background. Pacing is superb — neither hurried nor too languid — while they all scramble to perform perfectly timed sound effects. Reportedly, Elfenbaum had the cast rehearse sound effects and the necessary choreography for two weeks before they got down to memorizing lines.

The result is an incredibly smooth, glitch-free production where each actor is in exactly the right spot at the right time. It’s a beautiful dance. Unlike “Ham for the Holidays,” another good old-fashioned, Christmas-theme radio play, the story lacks backstage shenanigans and impending pressures from outside. Parallels to Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol” are obvious and intentional: a mean old miser scheming to squeeze the last penny from everyone around him, an intervening spirit, a life that is, a life that was, a life that might be and the triumph of honesty and good intentions over greed and malfeasance.

This production is both refreshingly straightforward and immensely satisfying. George Bailey’s familiar salvation, and the resulting salvation of the town of Bedford Falls, are beautifully and simply conveyed. No mere exercise in nostalgia, “It’s a Wonderful Life: A Radio Play” is a much-needed dose of positivity at a time of widespread distrust, animosity and outright savagery. We need all the feel-good we can get. RVP delivers balm for the soul with gusto and generosity.

Barry Willis is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association and president of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle. Contact him at barry.m.willis@gmail.com

If you go

What: “It’s a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play”

Where: The Barn Theatre, Marin Art and Garden Center, 30 Sir Francis Drake Blvd., Ross

When: Through Dec. 17; 7:30 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays; 2 p.m. Sundays

Admission: $20 to $35

Information: 415-456-9555, extension 3; rossvalleyplayers.com

Rating (out of five stars): ★★★★★