Every year around the holidays you see the same \u201cclassic\u201d Christmas movies: \u201cMiracle on 34th Street,\u201d \u201cBabes in Toyland,\u201d any number of different versions of \u201cA Christmas Carol,\u201d \u201cGremlins\u201d\u2026 the list goes on.<\/p>\n
This year, Perseverance Theatre chose to produce a live version of perhaps the most beloved Christmas film of all. And I don\u2019t mean \u201cHome Alone.\u201d<\/p>\n
I\u2019m talking about \u201cThis Wonderful Life\u201d \u2014 which runs through Dec. 31 at Perseverance \u2014 a theatrical adaptation by Steve Murray, conceived by Mark Setlock, based on the 1946 Frank Capra classic \u201cIt\u2019s a Wonderful Life.\u201d<\/p>\n
Now, many theaters might use a Christmas show as an excuse to deck the stage with lavish sets, extravagant costumes and big production numbers. The original film certainly did, employing a fully constructed 300-yard long \u201cMain Street\u201d and several-thousand tons of man-made snowfall.<\/p>\n
Most refreshingly, however, Perseverance\u2019s \u201cThis Wonderful Life\u201d makes holiday magic without all the ribbons and bows and boughs of holly (although, there is some fake snow).<\/p>\n
In fact, the production is a purposeful exercise in low-fidelity: Winking light bulbs serve as angels; a steel desk, as the Building and Loan offices; a small set of steps with a loose railing post, as the fixer-upper Bailey home. I have to say, I dig the \u201cless-is-more\u201d aesthetic, especially considering all the gold-plated opulence I\u2019ve been watching on the news every day since Nov. 8.<\/p>\n
But most economically \u2014 not to mention notably \u2014 in Murray\u2019s inventive and playful script, just one actor, Perseverance Actor-in-Residence James Sullivan, plays all 30-plus roles.<\/p>\n
Under the crisp direction of Alison Holtkamp \u2014 an actor, herself, who\u2019s also recently appeared with local stand-up comedy group Club Baby Seal \u2014 Sullivan breathes new life into a 70-year-old story so simultaneously dated and familiar it\u2019s almost become a parody of itself.<\/p>\n
Throughout the play\u2019s 80-plus well-paced minutes, Sullivan nimbly moves from character to character as the play weaves in and out of scenes lifted directly from the film, interspersed with observations, asides and bits of trivia.<\/p>\n
Quite honestly, his performance alone is worth the price of admission. While Sullivan offers a solid interpretation of Jimmy Stewart\u2019s classic George Bailey character, he flat-out nails mean, old Mr. Potter, the town\u2019s richest man and George Bailey\u2019s nemesis, whom he plays with pitch-perfect cantankerousness.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s the thing. While \u201cIt\u2019s a Wonderful Life\u201d is now generally considered among the greatest movies of all time, it wasn\u2019t a huge hit at the time of release. True, it did receive several Academy Award nominations \u2014 including Best Picture and Best Actor (Jimmy Stewart claimed it was the favorite role of his entire career) \u2014 but it was shut out at the Oscars and barely broke even at the box office. Ironically, this allowed its copyright to expire, which turned it into a Christmas staple by enabling constant airing every December throughout the 70s and 80s.<\/p>\n
Few would argue about the film\u2019s sentimentality; even in 1946, some critics called it \u201cCapra-corn.\u201d<\/p>\n
In this way, any production of \u201cThis Wonderful Life\u201d deals with an issue of source material. Either audience members are going to find it cheeseball or they won\u2019t. Of course, people like cheeseballs around the holidays, even if they don\u2019t particularly care for them any other time of the year. Just ask Hickory Farms.<\/p>\n
Another potential sticking point: even though Murray\u2019s script points out and pokes fun of its anachronistic feel-goodedness, this can make the humor feels like an inside joke. But again, who hasn\u2019t seen \u201cIt\u2019s a Wonderful Life?\u201d If, like my wife, you haven\u2019t \u2014 especially if, again like my wife, you refuse to watch anything in black and white \u2014 here\u2019s your chance to see it in color.<\/p>\n
Of course, there are those who absolutely LOVE \u201cIt\u2019s a Wonderful Life.\u201d People who know the words to \u201cBuffalo Gals;\u201d people who get misty when George lassos the moon (see what I mean by cheeseball?); people who incorporate \u201cZuzu\u2019s petals\u201d into their username\/password combinations. I am not one of these people and yet I legitimately enjoyed \u201cThis Wonderful Life\u201d on many different levels, not the least of which because in Frank Capra\u2019s universe, the evil rich guy never wins.<\/p>\n
Maybe next year Perseverance will do a one-man \u201cDie Hard.\u201d Personally, that\u2019s my favorite Christmas movie. James Sullivan as both Detective John McClane AND criminal mastermind Hans Gruber? Now that\u2019s what I call theatre.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Geoff Kirsch writes from Juneau. Read more at www.geoffkirsch.com.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Every year around the holidays you see the same \u201cclassic\u201d Christmas movies: \u201cMiracle on 34th Street,\u201d \u201cBabes in Toyland,\u201d any number of different versions of \u201cA Christmas Carol,\u201d \u201cGremlins\u201d\u2026 the list goes on. This year, Perseverance Theatre chose to produce a live version of perhaps the most beloved Christmas film of all. And I don\u2019t […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":23045,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":7,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[74],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-23044","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-life","tag-arts-and-culture"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23044","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23044"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23044\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23045"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23044"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23044"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23044"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=23044"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}