Are you one of the many people who watch It's a Wonderful Life each year? If you are, you'll love the experience of seeing it performed live on stage as a radio play. Complete with musical jingles and sound effects, it brings the audience back to the look and feel of the 1940s and is the perfect complement to a holiday season full of performances of A Christmas Carol and The Nutcracker.
The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey is presenting It’s A Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play from December 3-28, 2025 in the F.M. Kirby Shakespeare Theatre. The adaptation they are using was adapted and written by Joe Landry and first produced at TheatreWorks in New Milford, Connecticut in 1996.
The set is transformed into a 1940s era radio studio for this cherished American classic. Inspired by Frank Capra’s beloved holiday film, this heartfelt adaptation follows the life of the idealistic George Bailey. When all suddenly seems lost, an unlikely guardian angel intervenes and offers George an unexpected gift. A nostalgic blend of holiday cheer and theatrical magic, It’s a Wonderful Life celebrates the true meaning of the season and the best attributes of humankind. It will warm your heart and make you fall in love with the inhabitants of Bedford Falls all over again.
The cast includes RJ Foster, Paul Henry, Andy Paterson, Tony Roach, Tina Stafford, and Tiffany Topol. The production is directed by Paul Mullins.
A few of the cast members have been involved in radio plays before, but we reached out to Tony Roach (who plays George Bailey) and Tiffany Topol (who plays Mary Bailey) who are performing their first live radio plays to learn more about the production.
It's a Wonderful Life is a Christmas tradition for many folks and the live radio play of it has become quite an annual tradition as well. Is watching the movie a tradition for you?
Tiffany: It's definitely become a tradition for me and my partner. We go and see it at the tiny movie theatre in our town. It's one of our favorite movies, and it's often quoted year-round in our household ("Say brainless, don't you know where coconuts come from!?”).
Tony: Not really. My first interaction with it was when I was a little kid growing up in Emporia, Kansas. I remember seeing trailers for it on TV and was always kind of fascinated/vaguely confused because it would show Jimmy Stewart yelling "Merry Christmas Emporium", and I didn't know that word on its own, and couldn't quite reconcile what it meant. But for whatever reason I didn't actually watch it until I was maybe in my early 30s. I think I figured I'd find it really cheesy. And, of course, I loved it. I've since seen it a couple more times, but it's not an every year thing for me.
Scenic rendering by Sarah Beth Hall for the production
When you first rehearse a radio play like this, does the production utilize the sound effects from the beginning or are they brought in later on?
Tony: Oh, they're definitely there from the beginning (well, maybe not the table read). They're just like dialogue, and our Foley artist Paul Henry is also an actor playing multiple parts, so we have to integrate everything he's doing the same way we have to integrate any other character or actor. That said, he didn't necessarily have all of his "toys" at the beginning, so sometimes he might just yell something like "Splash!" or "Window breaks!" for the moment. But we were definitely incorporating all of that from Day 1.
Tiffany: Paul, our amazing Foley artist, has been with us since day one! He seamlessly moves between foley and playing a number of characters - it's really fun to watch.
What do you think it is about It's a Wonderful Life that has led it to become a perennial favorite? Is it the story? The characters? The feeling of hope?
Tony: Not to be a big weenie, but: yes. I mean, that's just it. All of those elements are great. And I think it's like Clarence says in his inscription in the end: "No man is a failure who has friends". Study after study tells us something we pretty much all feel intuitively: friends and family are really important for our well-being. This story is an object-lesson reminder of that. If you're kind to people and try to help them, you're going to have friends, you're going to have love, and you're going to be doing pretty well.
Tiffany, this is your first production with the Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey. What has been your experience as the newbie at a company that has a large repertory of actors who often return each year?
Tiffany: I felt at home right away — everyone has been so warm and welcoming. I hope to come back for another show!
Tiffany Topol and Tony Roach
There aren't many characters in Christmas films more recognizable than George Bailey. For me, I hear the distinctive voice of Jimmy Stewart when I think of that character. Is it difficult to try and make the character your own?
Tony: That’s one of the biggest things I've had to think about. I don't doubt that seeing this show will be fun for many people because of how much they love the movie, and specifically Jimmy Stewart in that role. But I'm counting on them not wanting to just see a rerun of his performance, or even if they are, I'm hoping they'll be pleasantly surprised by a different interpretation. That said, I'm not trying to reinvent the wheel here. Just make it my own.
I'm lucky (I guess?) that while I've seen the movie a couple times, I haven't seen it 100 times, and it isn't burned into my brain. And I have elected not to watch it until after we're done for that very reason. I don't want to be hearing Jimmy Stewart's line readings in my head the whole time. (Though it's still hard to not hear how he might say it, because he's, ya know, Jimmy Stewart). So yeah, like in any play, you're investigating the truth of any given situation to figure out how to play it. And then in this case I have to have a little Actor Watchman in my head reviewing everything and alerting me if he thinks I'm getting into an impression or an overly Stewart-influenced line reading.
Costume renderings by Austin Blake Conlee for the production.
Did you know? The first radio drama broadcast in the USA was in 1921 when agricultural professors from West Virginia University performed “A Rural Line on Education” on KDKA in Pittsburgh. One year later in 1922, when WGY Schenectady, New York successfully broadcast a full length radio play for the first time (including a cast of actors and live sound effects), radio plays and dramas became a regular feature on the radio. You can learn about radio plays and the history of It's a Wonderful Life in the Audience Guide for the show.
Performances of It's a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play take place December 3-28, 2025 in the F.M. Kirby Shakespeare Theatre (36 Madison Avenue) in Madison, New Jersey. Tickets are available for purchase online.
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