Too many scenes changes to recapture movie’s magic

Here come the holiday shows! It’s always great to have the variety of productions that arrive this time of year. Mud Creek Players offers a truly classic story for the season – It’s A Wonderful Life, adapted for the stage by James W. Rodgers. Kelly Keller directs.

Most of us have seen the film version starring James Stewart and Donna Reed. MCP’s community theatre turn is a straight forward telling of that story – very close to the original film script, it seems.

Jeff Haber as George and Jessica Hawkins as Mary. (Photo by Rob Slaven / IndyGhostLight.com)

A large and varied cast of 25 share their performances, led by Jeff Haber as George Bailey, Jessica Hawkins as Mary Bailey, and Sarah Froehlke as the angelic Clara (an adapted version of the original Clarence which works just fine). All three do admirable work along with Robert C. Boston Jr., who does a strong portrayal of Mr. Potter. Jim Gryga takes the important role of Clara’s heavenly Superintendent.

The fact that we all presumably know the story of George’s difficulties and his visit to ‘never having been’ helps this production immensely. The familiar story is represented, nearly every scene, but it is brought forth in stumbling fashion due to the countless (and often longish) scene changes that must occur to present that story. The acting is fine enough but the storytelling is not. The changes are done as quickly as is possible, I am sure – but there are just sooo many of them! Continuity is out the window.

I think the root of the problem is that there isn’t a smoother way of taking this film-styled story and making an attempt to put the entire thing, inclusive of all the story points with their varied locations, on a stage that doesn’t have a turntable to help handle the changes. The set design did feature separated right and left areas, and that certainly helped somewhat. But it was not nearly a solution. Frankly – if I, as a director, had read this script, I would have set it aside based on this multitude of settings.

Bottom line: I know the actors and crew worked hard on this one, and I fully appreciate their efforts. Unfortunately, the problem I have outlined above took much of the shine out of the resulting production.

It’s A Wonderful Life continues at Mud Creek Players through Dec. 7. You can find more info about reservations, the theatre’s location, and the company’s upcoming schedule by going to MudCreekPlayers.org.

Read more great play reviews from A Seat on the Aisle at asota.wordpress.com.