**** As the “Holidays” approach, stores get ready as do restaurants, and of course, theaters. One knows that comes late November and into December, there will be the “White Christmas”, “Elf” and a variety of Christmas  plays including the ever popular “It’s A Wonderful Life”, as a radio show. In the greater Chicagoland area, one theater has been doing this for over 20 years, and it seems that more and more theaters are climbing onto that wagon. Today, Jane and I went to the Oil Lamp Theater in Glenview for their version of this wonderful story, also presented as a “live” radio show, but from Manhattan, not Chicago.

As I said, I have seen this story many times and most everyone is familiar with the Frank Capra  film version that starred James Stewart. The story is about a man and his life and all the things that he did in his life that made for a better life for others. Sound confusing?  It is pretty simple and yet hard to explain, but as the story unfolds it all becomes clear and even the title makes logical sense.

Inn the Oil Lamp production directed by Lauren Katz, the stage is designed as if we are in an actual radio studio. Back in the days, there were live broadcasts, with an audience where the actors read from scripts and sound effects were done by a specialist known as a “foley”. In this particular show, we are at such a station and it is Christmas Eve. It turns out that the actual foley  has not shown up and a few actors as well, so the stage manager is taking on the roles missing and that of the foley. Corey L. Mills takes on this role as well as that of George’s uncle Billy. George ( the James Stewart role) is well handled by Nathaniel Thomas. Unlike other versions I have seen, each of the cast members takes on a persona that then plays the roles that are in the story.

Let me try to clarify this-

The production, as done by Katz is quite clever with some very cute items.The cast is made up of a total of 6 performers and all of them work hard in bringing this story to light. A was quite impressed with Chase Wheaton-Werle as “Freddie Filmore, who is the star of the radio show and in this case takes on many roles. He is the evil Potter and the leader of the angels and at one point has a scene where he plays all the parts, and does so with complete structure. The audience knows who is who.  Rami Halabi is also an actor with great skill. One of the roles he handles is that of Clarence, the Angel , 2nd class waiting to earn his wings. He is there to learn all about George and then to bring him back into reality when George sees that despite all the ups and down of his existence, he has indeed led a “wonderful life”. The other two performers are Halli Morgan, playing a multitude of characters and Carolyn Plurad who plays the actress playing Mary (George’s wife).

The production is smooth and done with baskets of props and hats and “stuff” that aid the change of characters, although some of the hats and caps were not fitting, but yet the ladies holding mustaches were cute and the sound effects worked , for the most part. The people who put this all together did a great job. Aaron Kahn did the music, Alex Trinh, the sound and Hannah Wien, the lighting. Taylor Pfenning designed costumes that truly looked like the period and Trenton Jones designed the studio and props. No matter how many times I have seen this story or watched the film, it always evokes a tear in my eye. It is a wonderful story and this one is fun to see live and in Glenview.

“It’s A Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Show At Oil Lamp Theatre” will continue thru    Dec 28th, with performances as follows: