“It’s A Wonderful Life: Live in Chicago!” reviewed by Julia W. Rath

**** The second-longest-running holiday show in the Chicago metropolitan area, “It’s a Wonderful Life: Live in Chicago!” is now in its 22nd year. Based on the well-loved Frank Capra movie, the American Blues Theater (ABT) production is unique is that it is set up to resemble a mid-1940s radio broadcast. The theater audience becomes the studio audience at a local Chicago radio station (WABT), and we are to imagine ourselves on-air, providing applause and live responses. Of course, director and artistic director Gwendolyn Whiteside (plus the cast and crew) change things up a bit every year. But today’s annual production is very different: It is no longer itinerant! It takes place at ABT’s very first permanent home, a brand-new venue located in the Budlong Woods neighborhood on Chicago’s Northwest Side. Built practically from the ground up, the new theater building is a gem! The lovely, warm, and cozy mainstage seats 148 people, while the studio theater is a relatively small but flexible black box, holding about 40 seats. Between them is the distinctive and tastefully furnished lobby and bar area with a huge Christmas tree in the corner (and its red, white, and blue ornaments), reminiscent of the winter season in more ways than one! Not only can ABT now host its own shows, but, in addition, the facility can be rented out to outside theatrical companies.

Yet it isn’t just the new venue that makes the 2023 production notable. The songs that precede the “main event” are different too! The music that begins as the audience takes their seats is filled with many familiar melodies, plus carols that we sing along with; there is also a game to guess a song’s name or its composer. This year, musical director, pianist, guitarist, composer, songwriter, announcer, and jack-of-all-trades Michael Mahler has incorporated some new whimsical and comic routines into the pre-performance. My favorite happens to be the bit when he asks the audience for a name of a performing artist, and then he mimics a song written by that artist in their own voice and uses their authentic musical accompaniment. At the same time, he changes the lyrics to befit Christmas and Hanukkah.

Now it’s on to the heart of the show! “It’s a Wonderful Life” is a familiar drama about the power of love, faith, and friendship that focuses on the life of George Bailey (Brandon Dahlquist), who is a family man from Bedford Falls, New York, who has suddenly lost his way. His only hope is for an Angel Second-Class named Clarence (Joe Dempsey) to save him from a dreadful, self-inflicted fate—that is, only after the cruel and greedy Henry F. Potter (also played by Joe Dempsey) tells him that he is worth more dead than alive. While George’s choices always remain his own, it is Clarence the Angel who prompts him to listen to his heart and his fine moral compass. When George does so, he learns what it means to live his life, and he realizes what other people’s lives might have been like had he not been born. By noting his own absence in an alternate universe, George observes that he has indeed infused some amount of good into the world, and therefore, his life is (and has been) well worth living. As Clarence rightly points out: “Each person’s life touches so many other lives.” Although George is not without his troubles and his doubts, he is told at the end that he has lived a wonderful life and that “No one is a failure who has friends.”

In this feel-good presentation, the words, music, and sound effects paint vivid scenes and breathe life into all of the characters. All of the actors change their voices at will to play many different parts. Audrey Billings plays George’s wife Mary Bailey and others. Manny Buckley performs as George’s uncle Billy, as Clarence’s supervisor Joseph, and as the hot-tempered Mr. Welch. Ian Paul Custer serves as George’s brother Harry and many others. And of course, there is Dara Cameron, who plays Violet, a young woman initially infatuated with George. True confession: I wait every year to see her in the role of George’s youngest daughter Zuzu, who proclaims, “Teacher says, ‘Every time a bell rings, an angel gets his wings.’” Understudies are Mackenzie Jones and Zack Shultz. J.G. Smith is on Foley, and Mahler’s musical accompaniment is present throughout the entire show.

One reason that this radio production and the movie that preceded it have been so popular has to do with the moral of the story: Look how lucky we are to be alive and to reach this season! Life is not just about traveling the world or going off to college or gathering material goods—or escaping one’s fate. It is about saving lives and making sure that other people don’t die: physically, emotionally, psychologically, or financially. It is about the importance of doing one’s duty to one’s friends, family, and neighbors. What is most important are the little things that we do in the course of our daily routine, such as providing encouragement and comfort to others, helping them grow, and basically making other people happy. By doing these relatively small acts of kindness, we make ourselves better people; in sharp contrast to being mean and greedy, which turns us into the worst version of ourselves.

In addition to acting out the characters in the story, the performers take two “breaks” and participate in a variety of old-fashioned radio commercials for companies and organizations from the 1940s. These run the gamut from ComEd to The Northern Trust Bank plus jingles and Mahler’s original music to suit! That said, community partnerships were essential back then—but also in the present-day. Thus, another advertisement thanks the Paul M. Angell Family Foundation for their generosity in donating to the theater.

If there is any one fault in the presentation, it is that the new microphones amplify the high pitches a bit too much. There ought to be a better balance between bass and treble. I am sure that this will be ironed out as the production company becomes more comfortable in its new home. Just like the fictional Bailey Brothers Building and Loan once became a fixture in Bedford Falls (and in our collective hearts), the new ABT theater will become a fixture in Chicago’s Budlong Woods neighborhood. Congratulations to all on this reaching this important milestone!

“It’s a Wonderful Life: Live in Chicago!” is playing at the American Blues Theater, 5627 N Lincoln Ave, in Chicago, through December 31, 2023.

This family-friendly 90-minute performance is recommended for audience members ages 10 and up.

General Admission Tickets – $55 (+ an additional $4.50 booking fee per ticket)
Seniors – $50 (+ an additional $4.50 booking fee per ticket)
Students – $45 (+ an additional $4.50 booking fee per ticket)
“Blue Box Seats” (see below) – $65 (+ an additional $4.50 booking fee per ticket)

For more information and to purchase tickets, visit: https://www.tickettailor.com/events/americanbluestheater/997412#.

All tickets purchased online are General Admission Seating, meaning that you will choose your seats when you arrive at the theater.

To upgrade to Reserved Seating for an additional fee of $5 per seat, please call 773-654-3103.

New this year! A limited number of seats are reserved “Blues Box Seats”, available for an extra $10 per ticket. These may be purchased online or by phone.

Performance schedule:

Fridays – 7:30 p.m.
Saturdays – 4:30 and 7:30 p.m.
Sundays – 2:00 p.m.
Extra performance, Sunday, December 17 – 5:00 p.m.

For general information about American Blues Theater and to learn about their other offerings, go to: https://americanbluestheater.com/.

For accessibility requests and for patrons requiring special parking accommodations, please call 773-654-3103 or email BoxOffice@AmericanBluesTheater.com. Otherwise, parking in their lot is unreserved, subject to availability.

For additional questions, please call the box office at 773-654-3103 or email: Info@AmericanBluesTheater.com.

American Blues Theater asks that you consider a donation at this time of year. All donations of $25+ receive a free ornament! See https://americanbluestheater.com/donate-now/ for more details. Note that American Blues Theater is a 501(c)3 not-for-profit corporation. Your donation is tax-deductible to the full extent of the law.

To see what others are saying, visit www.theatreinchicago.com, go to Review Round-Up and click at “It’s A Wonderful Life: Live in Chicago!”.