Cultural Park play recreates classic holiday movie as 1940s radio broadcast
It’s a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play comes to Cultural Park Theater December 9-19. The play recreates the classic holiday movie as a 1940s radio broadcast.
Starring James Stewart, Donna Reed and Lional Barrymore, It’s a Wonderful Life is #20 on the American Film Institute’s Top 100 Greatest American Films of All Times and #1 on 100 Years … 100 Cheers, with George Bailey listed as #9 on AFI’s 100 Heroes list and James Stewart #3 on AFI’s list of the greatest stars in cinematic history.
As you’ll readily recall, George Bailey is a generous, well-meaning man who facing an existential crisis prompted by the impending failure of his Bedford Falls savings & loan association. Downcast, at his wit’s end and convinced that he is indeed worth more dead than alive, he contemplates ending his life one fateful Christmas Eve. It will take help from a lovable angel named Clarence to show George all the lives he positively influenced in an effort to induce him to have a change of heart in the true spirit of the holidays.
But Cultural Park Theater’s retelling of the classic tale comes with a clever twist. The story is staged as a live 1940s radio broadcast with actors playing numerous characters and sound effects provided by Foley artists.
Please go here for play dates, times and ticket information.
November 24, 2021.














Tom Hall is both an amateur artist and aspiring novelist who writes art quest thrillers. He is in the final stages of completing his debut novel titled "Art Detective," a story that fictionalizes the discovery of the fabled billion-dollar Impressionist collection of Parisian art dealer Josse Bernheim-Jeune, thought by many to have perished during World War II when the collection's hiding place, Castle de Rastignac in southern France, was destroyed by the Wehrmacht in reprisal for attacks made by members of the Resistance operating in the area. A former tax attorney, Tom holds a bachelor's degree as well as both a juris doctorate and masters of laws in taxation from the University of Florida. Tom lives in Estero, Florida with his fiancee, Connie, and their four cats.