Be transported back to Christmas in the 1940s with BrightSide Theatre’s “Miracle on 34th Street: A Live Musical Radio Play,” which takes stage — and to the imaginary airwaves — Dec. 10-19 at the Theatre at Meiley-Swallow Hall in Naperville.
“It’s a unique piece of theater where we have seven actors playing over 20 different characters, sound effects being created live on stage and a piano player,” explained Director Jeffrey Cass. “It’s a beloved story that has been retold on film and radio numerous times about believing in the spirit and magic of Christmas.”
Everyone has a role, or multiple roles, in the show — even the audience, which serves as the studio audience in this radio play adapted from the original Lux Radio Theatre broadcast that aired Dec. 22, 1947.
“It takes us back to 1947 in the Lux Soap sponsored Radio Recording Studio where our audience is the audience for the radio show,” Cass said. “A group of seven actors and one musician come to work to perform the story of ‘A Miracle on 34th Street.'”
Thus sets the stage for this radio play within a stage play.
Of course, most people are more familiar with the 1947 film starring Maureen O’Hara, John Payne, Natalie Wood and Edmund Gwenn. The story follows a Macy’s department store Santa who claims to be the real Santa Claus.
“The radio play is the same version as the movie, just told through a different medium,” Cass said. “There are songs in it — some are in response to a scene to set the mood, others are songs that are progressing the plot as in a traditional musical and others are jingles to the commercials in the radio play.”
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The musical aspect is one of the more challenging elements for the cast.
“The music is written in the style of the 1930s and ’40s with tight harmonies to get the sounds like Bing Crosby, Ella Fitzgerald, Micky Rooney and Judy Garland with the tightness of the Boswell Sisters,” Cass said.
One of his favorite parts of the production is watching the actors use their talents to create so many different characters in the same show, from Kriss Kringle to young Susan.
“I hope that the audience is able to escape for a couple of hours into our world of 1947 and the heart of a traditional Christmas story,” said Cass, who is also BrightSide’s artistic director.
“Miracle” marks the first production of the Naperville professional theater company’s 10th season.
“We are also serving up Neil Simon and Burt Bacharach’s delicious musical comedy ‘Promises, Promises;’ a fantastic French farce ‘Don’t Dress For Dinner;’ then, after having been postponed for two years, we’ll have you dancing in the aisles to the music of ABBA with ‘Mamma Mia!'” Cass said.
BrightSide Theatre’s ‘Miracle on 34th Street: A Live Musical Radio Play’
When: 8 p.m. Dec. 10, 11, 17 and 18; 2 p.m. Dec. 11, 12, 18, and 19
Where: Theatre at Meiley-Swallow Hall, 31 S. Ellsworth St., Naperville
Tickets: $31-$36
Information: 630-447-8497, brightsidetheatre.com/shows/miracle/
Jen Banowetz is a freelance reporter for the Naperville Sun.