It's a Wonderful Life

It's a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play at Trinity Repertory Company
Gratuitous Violins rating: **** out of ****

I wasn't sure what It's a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play would be like without Jimmy Stewart and the rest of the cast from the classic 1946 movie but I'm happy to report that onstage it's pretty wonderful, too.

Joe Landry's 85-minute adaptation is presented as a Christmas Eve 1949 radio broadcast from Manhattan, before a studio audience. There's a minimal cast - five actors play multiple roles and a Foley artist provides sound effects - but the story retains its charm and emotional pull.

Just in case you're not familiar with the plot:

George Bailey dreams of an adventurous life far away from his hometown of Bedford Falls but ends up taking over the building and loan started by his father. Years later, facing financial ruin, he's on the brink of suicide, convinced that his family would be better off without him and wishing that he had never been born.

Fred Sullivan Jr. was absolutely endearing as George Bailey, a man who's always put the needs of his family, friends and community over his own. As his devoted wife, Mary, Angela Brazil was sparkling. I enjoyed watching them progress from young lovers to a married couple with kids of their own.

Timothy Crowe was a marvel, switching effortlessly from the rich and ruthless Mr. Potter to George's affable but not always reliable Uncle Billy. Stephen Berenson brought sweetness to Clarence, an angel who's sent to save George, and a comic touch to the kindly bar owner Mr. Martini. Anne Scurria was terrific as the flirtatious Violet and as the adorable Zazu, the youngest Bailey child.

Michael McGarty's set includes microphones on stands, a few chairs, a small Christmas tree and props for the Foley artist, Benjamin Inniger, who makes doors slam, the cash register ring, the water splash and the wind howl.

The actors spend a lot of time in front of the microphones, scripts in hand. But when Clarence shows George what life would have been like in Bedford Falls without him, they play directly to the studio audience in a way that was so emotional and effective.

What the scaled-down set and cast did for me was to make the story more intimate. It's a Wonderful Life is about one man and his impact on a community, but it's also a moving portrait of small-town American life. And it struck me how much the story resonates today.

Home ownership - that cornerstone of the American dream - plays a major role in the plot. The Bailey Building and Loan Association made it possible for the working-class residents of Bedford Falls to get out from under Mr. Potter's usurious rents.

I'm certain that George Bailey never let anyone take out a mortgage they couldn't afford. I'm also certain that those first-time homebuyers bought within their means and understood how much their monthly payment would be. And everyone knew who held their mortgage.

This is the first year Trinity Rep has staged It's a Wonderful Life, in tandem with the theatre's annual production of A Christmas Carol. It's a great combination.

As much as I love the movie, there's something unique about watching a story unfold right before your eyes. It's a Wonderful Life is funny and poignant and absorbing. And in the end, there were tears in my eyes.

Absurd Person Singular

Absurd Person Singular at Trinity Rep
Gratuitous Violins rating: ***1/2 out of ****

I laughed my way through Alan Ayckbourn's trilogy The Norman Conquests on Broadway. So when I saw a work by the prolific British playwright on Trinity Rep's schedule, my excitement level went sky high.

Set in the mid 1970s in London, Absurd Person Singular takes place in the kitchens of three married couples hosting Christmas Eve parties in successive years. And once again, I laughed all the way through. (If you ever get a chance to see an Ayckbourn play, take it!)

Director Brian McEleney keeps everything moving at a brisk clip and the cast really nails Ayckbourn's slapstick humor.

Sidney (Stephen Berenson) and Jane (Angela Brazil) are desperate to make a good impression so they can obtain a bank loan to expand their grocery store. Geoffrey (Fred Sullivan Jr.), married to the depressed Eva (Phyllis Kay), is a successful architect who boasts about his womanizing. Ronald (Timothy Crowe) and Marion (Anna Scurria) are the snobby banker and his wife.

Ayckbourn has a great knack for bringing out the absurdity in the most ordinary people and mundane events, making comedy out of situations that on the surface don't seem funny: alcoholism, depression, financial woes.

He paints a great portrait of the tension - beneath the surface and boiling over - that exists during these holiday get-togethers: the frantic preparations, the small talk, the silly party games and the person who always has too much to drink.

While I don't think there's any deep message in this play it is interesting to see the changes that occur over the three acts. Marriages are strained, the way the couples relate to each other changes, fortunes rise and fall.

One of the things I appreciated most about Absurd Person Singular is what it leaves to the audience's imagination.

There's a ferocious-sounding dog in Act II that we never see. And at a couple of points during Act I, the actors leave the stage. The only sound is the chatter of partygoers in the adjoining room.

When that happened it was surprising and kind of unsettling - I was staring at an empty set for a minute. Yet at the same time I found it kind of thrilling as I wondered what would happen next.

At the theatre, I don't think you can ask for anything better than that.

The Receptionist

Gratuitous Violins rating: ** out of ****

In Trinity Repertory Company's production of The Receptionist, we get an idea of just how mundane and routine that job can be: answering the phone, zealously guarding office supplies, gossiping with coworkers.

But things aren't what they seem at the drab and dreary Northeast Office of an unnamed concern. (Pay close attention to the prologue by Timothy Crowe, who plays the boss, Edward Raymond, and you'll get some idea.) Adam Bock's dark comedy is an attempt show what nefarious goings on can lie beneath the most ordinary settings.

This is my second time around with The Receptionist, so it's difficult for me to review the play as if I'd never seen it before. And it was a mixed bag - some things I liked better this time around, some things didn't work as well for me.

Seeing the show for a second time definitely helped make the plot more understandable. But it still seems to me like there's too much small talk in The Receptionist, too much waiting around for something to happen. When the tone switches from comedy to something more ominous, it comes kind of abruptly. In the end, the play remains kind of unsatisfying.

Also, honestly, I preferred the cast and some of the costume and set design choices in the production I saw last fall, at the Manhattan Theatre Club.

Okay, I know I'm starting to sound like a theatre snob - well, you know, when I saw it in New York. I know I'm supposed to judge each production on its own merits and really, I did go in with an open mind. The problem is, and I know this is unfair, I've already got a picture in my mind of what these characters should look like and sound like.

In the Trinity Rep production, Janice Duclos plays the title role of receptionist Beverly Wilkins and she's got her hands full. There's Lorraine, the flighty and flirtatious coworker, played by Angela Brazil; Martin Dart, a rather mysterious stranger from the Central Office, played by Timothy John Smith; and her mostly absent boss, Mr. Raymond, who seems to be harboring some qualms about his job.

Bock, who used to work in the theatre's marketing department, wrote the part with Duclos in mind, and it's a great comic role. Duclos is very funny - she's got the office banter down pat, she's overly protective of pens and pencils as if the money for them came out of her own pocket and she's constantly dispensing advice, all the while coping with her own problems at home via a steady stream of personal phone calls.

But while everyone else around me was laughing and nodding their heads in recognition with Duclos' performance, I was thinking about Jayne Houdyshell, who played the role off-Broadway. She was truly inspired, more witty and satirical and totally spot-on. For me, she was the best part of the play. Duclos is very good but she simply couldn't make me forget what Houdyshell did with the role.

And something about Brazil just grated on me although, again, the audience seemed to love her. Brazil's Lorraine is excessively emotional and loud and over the top - a little too theatrical for me. I've seen Brazil give some fine performances but this one just rang false. Plus, William Lane's costume design - short, tight-fitting black skirt, lots of jewelry and a shimmery purple blouse - seemed wrong for this kind of office. (Although it did fit with Brazil's character.)

And in my humble opinion, set designer Eugene Lee has made Beverly's desk too high, so the audience can't see over it. Part of the fun off-Broadway was watching Beverly wipe down her workspace with disinfectant, seeing the pens and pencils and stapler and pads of Post-It notes. When you saw that desk, it really set the scene.

Except for me, director Curt Columbus (who's also Trinity Rep's artistic director) and the playwright, I doubt anyone who goes to see The Receptionist will have seen the New York production. So I realize that a lot of my criticism is moot.

There is a lot of humor and the subject is thought provoking. Someone seeing The Receptionist for the first time may enjoy it more than I did. I just wish Bock had given us a little more to chew on in terms of what this office really was all about.