Taproot recovers from fire with a sentimental radio-play version of 'It's a Wonderful Life'

It wasn't the way the folks at Taproot Theatre intended to spend the Christmas season. They planned to present a new Christmas-themed Sherlock Holmes caper by local playwright John Longenbaugh at their Greenwood playhouse.

Instead, after a major arson burned them out of their home in October, they scrambled to revive a different holiday show: "It's a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play" at a borrowed venue at North Seattle Community College.

The intrepid troupe's show-must-go-on spunk shines through this pleasantly nostalgic retelling of Frank Capra's evergreen 1946 movie, staged by Karen Lund.

A chipper, capable five-member acting crew zips brightly through the show's singing commercials (homages to Taproot supporters), and the condensed saga of George Bailey (Grant Goodeve), a small-town banker who is fished out of a river by an apprentice angel, Clarence (Alex Robertson), after a suicide attempt.

In the spirit of "A Christmas Carol," George is taken on a tour of his past to remind him of his exemplary life as a loving family man, and a selfless leading citizen of that mythic American Everytown, Bedford Falls. He also gets a bracing look at how much worse the place would have been without him.

In 1940s radio-broadcast style, the actors wear street clothes, share microphones and one, Eric Riedmann, does double duty as the head sound-effects guy who conjures doors closing, car engines revving, et al.

Devotees of the Capra movie may miss star Jimmy Stewart's laconic, stuttering charm (though Goodeve is plenty charming), and such iconic scenes as a town dance that turns into an impromptu pool party.

But Joe Landry's stage adaptation does capture the essence of the story. And a Depression-era message of valuing community and family over wealth and me-first individualism that reverberates today.

Misha Berson: mberson@seattletimes.com