Max Gordon Moore (from left), Katie Fabel and Peter Maloney make this radio play sing. (Carol Rosegg)
Spoiler alert: Clarence gets his wings.
That you know absolutely everything that’s going to happen doesn’t spoil the pleasures of “It’s a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play.” Anthony E. Palermo’s streamlined adaptation of Frank Capra’s holiday chestnut is a vivid reminder of the classic tale’s elemental power, even without Jimmy Stewart and Donna Reed.
The conceit of director Charlotte Moore’s charming production is that we’re in the studio audience at the WIRT Radio Theater’s 1946 live broadcast of the show, in which six actors play 25 characters in the inspirational story, set in the fictional town of Bedford Falls, NY.
Yes, we’ve seen the film countless times and know every line by heart — all together now, “No man is a failure who has friends” — but there we are, moved all the same, inwardly cheering George Bailey’s sacrifices and hissing the villainous banker, Mr. Potter.
Much like David Mamet’s “The Water Engine,” the show sends up the conventions of old-time radio, especially with its hokey commercials for “McCourt’s Little Liver Pills” and this little gem:
“Gentlemen, is your wife a slave to once-a-month muscular cramps?” intones one of the performers, before hawking a product containing 18 percent alcohol, the “universal solvent.”
Holding scripts, the actors deliver their lines in front of a pair of microphones, talking into a fishbowl to suggest the sound of a telephone conversation, or murmuring in whispers to convey the babble of a crowd.
Kristin Griffith and Peter Maloney handle the older roles, with Maloney alternately wearing a white hat, complete with halo, for the angel Clarence, and a black hat for Potter. Katie Fabel mainly, and charmingly, plays George’s loyal wife, Mary; Ian Holcomb assumes characters ranging from Uncle Billy to George’s brother Harry, and Rory Duffy fills a multitude of roles as well as handling the extensive SFX chores.
Max Gordon Moore makes the role of George his own, portraying both the character’s innate decency and the bitter despair that leads him to make his potentially fatal dive off a bridge.
This charmingly low-tech, small-scale adaptation will make you long to see the film again. Happily, you can catch it on the big screen during its annual engagement starting Friday at the IFC Center.