[NEohioPAL] Review of "This Wonderful Life" at Cleveland Play House

[Bob Abelman]

Engaging star lifts one-man adaptationof 'Wonderful Life' at CPH


Bob Abelman

News-Herald, Chagrin Valley Times, Solon Times, Geauga Times Courier

Member, International Association of Theatre Critics 

 

This review appeared in the News-Herald on 12/10/10

 This time of year makes the old feel young again.

Whether it's gazing at festive window displays, breathing in cold air singed by roasting chestnuts, or hearing Christmas classics played over the radio, the sounds, sights and smells of the holidays tap our memories and we become children.


The Cleveland Play House's This Wonderful Life, a veritable retelling of the perennial holiday film It's A Wonderful Life, is the express lane for such rejuvenation.


It is the perfect response to the "tell me a story, Daddy" reflex brought on by the nostalgic reverie of the holiday season, no matter our age. 


The storytelling is so comfortable and comforting is this stage production that the dress code should be jammies, and a glass of warm milk and a cookie should be doled out with the playbill as the ushers tuck us into our seats.


"This Wonderful Life" is performed by one man on a near-barren stage.  The entire film, with it's over 30 characters, is reenacted with a blend of narration to set the scene and select dialogue taken straight from the celluloid to tell the story. 


At first, this seems like an odd piece of pretense. 


Where's the panoramic shot of bucolic Bedford Falls to immediately transport us to this 1940s world of small town America?  Where's the stylized cinematography that captures the souls of forbearing everyman George Bailey, festering money-grubber Mr. Potter, doddering Uncle Billy, endearing Mary, and benign Angel Second Class Clarence?  Where's little Zuzu?  The absence of these things is initially unsettling.


Clearly, the success of this one-man, one-act production is dependent on that one man's accessibility and virtuosity.  He must revive that personal connection we have with these iconic characters and sustain it.   He must bridge the distance between master filmmaking and live theater.


Fortunately, there's James Leaming on stage and Peter Amster directing.

Leaming begins the evening amongst the audience, amiably welcoming and casually mingling with the crowd as they take their seats.  He shares his love for the classic film, trades stories about favorite moments and favorite characters, and is quick with a warm and winning grin.  This is very endearing and, of course, highly purposeful.

 

By the time Leaming walks onto the open stage-an inviting environment framed with holiday greenery, Christmas lights and silver ornaments-familiarity fills the room and any sense of foreboding has dissipated.  As we take our place at his feet, ready for this communal bedtime story, we psychologically snuggle up to one another and settle in for the evening.

 

Like children who have heard the same tale read over and over again, we listen intently, unconsciously mouthing the words at the moment they are spoken.

 

What we hear in this truncated rendition by playwright Steve Murray are all the familiar voices.  Leaming's impersonations of James Stewart (George), Lionel Barrymore (Potter) and Henry Travers (Clarance) are spot on, which allows our imaginations to kick in and fill in the visual gaps created by Leaming's lack of resemblance to any of them.

 

Our narrator is less adapt at recalling the voices of the women and children from the film, which is a little disturbing since all his women sound like breathless bombshells (imagine Donna Reed in a teddy).  Fortunately, Leaming's charm and playful delivery serves as compensation and keeps our imagination from wandering too far.

 

In fact, Leaming is playful throughout the evening, offering clever asides that call attention to and make fun of the more dated references and corny moments in the film.   These tidbits are meaningful only to those who have seen the film, but the rest of the evening will make perfect sense to the uninitiated.

 

Under Amster's direction, coupled with Aaron Muhl's lighting and Kevin Kennedy's clever sound design, the few props and pieces of furniture on stage are more than sufficient to establish a sense of time and place in this bare-bone production.   More elaborate staging would be counterproductive-even distracting-for a show like this.  

 

The Cleveland Play House has replaced one film-to-stage holiday tale, A Christmas Story, with another, substituting a classic of its own invention with one that time created.  Although kids in the audience will no doubt prefer Flick getting his tongue stuck to the lamppost over Zuzu giving her father flower petals to repair, the kid in the rest of us will be grinning from ear to ear.  

 

This Wonderful Life continues through December 19 in The Cleveland Play House's Drury Theatre.  For tickets, which range from $45 to $65, call 216-795-7000 or visit www.clevelandplayhouse.com.
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