1) Southern Bike League leads Christmas Light Rides through Buckhead and Vinings.
2) Tab Benoit plays Smith’s Olde Bar.
3) The First Emperor: China’s Terracotta Army continues at the High Museum.
4) It’s Elephant’s and Dave Daniels play the Earl.
5) It’s a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play continues at Theatrical Outfit.
(SBL Archive)
It’s a Wonderful Life airs tomorrow night at 7 p.m. on NBC. It’s unquestionably one of the best Christmas-themed movies ever made, but some things about it really stick in my craw, and I’m not alone in this. Maybe it’s because the inequities and injustices of American life seem so close to its surface. Everyman George Bailey sacrifices his dreams to fight the good fight in Bedford Falls, and almost loses everything to his Uncle Billy’s idiocy.
Theatrical Outfit’s radio play version of the material (reviewed here) simply celebrates the work, but satires of It’s a Wonderful Life can cut Frank Capra’s vision to the quick. Gary Kamiya’s classic Salon article “All Hail Pottersville” suggests that the nightmarish version of Bedford Falls sans George Bailey might be more fun than the real thing (and is certainly more diverse). The comic strip “Sheldon” gives Uncle Billy some much-needed tough love. I love this recut trailer that suggests that George Bailey’s dark side is close to the service.
The best spoof of It’s a Wonderful Life came from “Saturday Night Live’ about two decades ago, however:
1) It’s a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play opens at Theatrical Outfit.
2) John Nemeth plays Blind Willie’s.
3) Charis Circle and Sopo Bike Co-op join forces for Urban Sustainability: Bicycle Power!
4) Germany Greer’s Ethereal Surroundings continues at Studio Clout.
5) Scott H. Biram and Ghostriders Car Club play the Earl.
(Photo by Bill DeLoach)
THREE WISE MEN: Hugh Adams (left), Barry Stoltze and Brik Berkes in Theatrical Outfit's 'It's a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play.'
Something about radio seems particularly suited to the holidays, perhaps because we grow up with the tradition of radio stations switching to all-Christmas formats after Thanksgiving. Several theaters, including Theatrical Outfit and the Atlanta Radio Theatre Company, are staging holiday plays that tap into the live radio format. Even if a performance isn’t going out over the airwaves, the audience still feels a charge when that “ON THE AIR” sign lights up.
The 1940s Radio Hour, for years a perennial holiday show at Marietta’s Theatre in the Square and playing this year at Dahlonega’s Holly Theater, evokes the spirit, songs and commercials of the WW II era. From Dec. 3-21, Theatrical Outfit harks back to roughly the same period with a remount of last year’s Christmas show, It’s a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play, which imagines Frank Capra’s classic film performed for an audience by five actors. (more…)
