ONSTAGE
What: Blue Bridge Radio Plays, Shop Around The Corner/It’s a Wonderful Life
Where: Roxy Theatre, 2657 Quadra St.
When: Shop Around the Corner: Dec. 14 and 16, 8 p.m.; Dec. 17, 2 p.m.; It’s a Wonderful Life: Dec. 15 and 17, 8 p.m.; Dec. 16, 2 p.m.
Tickets: 250-382-3370, bluebridgetheatre.ca, at the door
Two years ago, Blue Bridge Repertory Theatre, faced with financial challenges, reverted from a year-round operation to its origins as a repertory theatre that only stages productions during the summer months.
But Christmas is one of those times the professional theatre company gets an opportunity to remind its audiences that it’s still around.
Two weeks after staging a 10th anniversary celebration of its musical-theatre history, Blue Bridge is back, this time capitalizing on the popularity of its intermittent series of radio plays with Shop Around the Corner and It’s a Wonderful Life.
“It’s fun for the audience and something that’s cheap for us to produce during our off-season,” said artistic director Brian Richmond.
The radio plays are being performed in repertory at the Roxy, starting tonight with Shop Around the Corner, which will also be staged Saturday at 8 p m. and Sunday at 2 p.m.
It’s A Wonderful Life opens Friday at 8 p.m., followed by a Saturday matinée at 2 pm. and closing Sunday night.
“We rehearse in one day and it gives us a chance to cast some really great actors. A number of the city’s best actors are doing this.”
Wes Tritter, star of Blue Bridge productions including As You Like It and My Fair Lady, will play Clarence the Angel in It’s a Wonderful Life, for instance.
The 18-member Blue Bridge Radio Ensemble includes Richmond himself, Sarah Donald, Tara Britt, Chris Mackie, Laura-Jane Wallace, Michael Armstrong, Jacob Richmond, RJ Peters, Shauna Baird, Griffin Lea, Morgan Cranny, Iris McGregor Bannerman, Jack-Harris Bruce, Emma Newton, Sam Walmsley-Byrne, Lauren Welchner and Noa Paster.
Richmond, who has described the old-fashioned radio plays as “our Christmas card to the community,” said the low-cost shows will hopefully also help to reduce the company’s deficit.
He attributes their appeal to the novelty of seeing how radio plays were produced in front of live audiences during the golden age of radio in the 1930s and 1940s.
“Apart from the fact they get to see these actors play a multiplicity of roles, audiences seem to love the foley sound of it, creating things like footsteps in the snow with corn starch and a leather bag,” he said.
RJ Peters is providing the foley effects this time for “a total aural experience,” Richmond said. The cast will read from scripts in front of a big retro radio microphone.
“Audiences tend to come and either watch the show, or just sit back and listen, as if they were listening to a real radio show.”
This year’s attractions were chosen for very specific reasons, said Richmond.
“Shop Around the Corner, the 1940 Ernest Lubitsch film, based on the Hungarian play, is one of my favourites,” Richmond said.
The romantic comedy classic starring James Stewart and Margaret Sullavan as a leather goods clerk and the new shopgirl who learn they’re each other’s secret romantic penpal spawned remakes. Notable variations include You’ve Got Mail, a 1998 comedy pairing Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan; In the Good Old Summertime (1949), starring Judy Garland and Van Johnson; and the 1963 Broadway musical She Loves Me.
As for It’s a Wonderful Life, that’s a no-brainer, said Richmond.
“It’s, of course, the American version of A Christmas Carol, but it’s such a brilliant movie,” he said. “What I love about it is that it was an absolute flop when it first came out, one of the only flops Frank Capra ever had.”
The legendary filmmaker’s 1946 box-office dud, starring James Stewart as George Bailey, also has a fascinating back story, Richmond said. It became a Christmas classic because of the emergence of cable television in the 1970s.
“There was a station in New York City that had nothing to play and because [the film] wasn’t properly copyrighted, they picked it up,” he said.
To Capra’s delight, his once-forgotten labour of love suddenly found a huge, ever-growing audience, since distributors and broadcasters could screen the film for free.
