Twin Cities actors present 'It's a Wonderful Life'

For many Minnesotans, Jimmy Stewart is as much a part of Christmas as Santa Claus. But a troupe of veteran Twin Cities actors is proving that you can have a wonderful life without him.

For nearly a decade, Jim Cunningham and his friends have been performing a radio version of "It's a Wonderful Life" during the holiday season at the St. Paul Hotel.

As patrons dine on coq au vin, the actors re-create the classic movie as sound effects whiz Chris Whiting uses whistles, garbage-can lids, gavels, car keys and Altoids to double for the sounds of everything from angels dropping from heaven to drunks getting thrown out of bars.

One shortcoming: Until last year, you couldn't hear the show on the airwaves. You had to be in the ballroom audience to enjoy the throwback production.

After being broadcast last December on K-TWIN (96.3 FM), "Life" moves to WCCO (830 AM) on Saturday night, with a rebroadcast scheduled for Christmas Eve.

Cunningham, a founding member of the Actors Theater of Minnesota and the public-address announcer for the Twins, said seeing the show in person or listening to it by the glow of the fireplace with a bowl of popcorn forces you to really zero in on a story you may take for granted, with the 1946 Frank Capra film running endlessly on TV in December.

"You probably really haven't paid attention, even though you think you have," said Cunningham, who snatched up the rights for the local production after seeing a version in Chicago. "The movie has become like background noise while you're trimming the tree or baking cookies.

The cast is so committed to the play that the seven original members still are performing it.

"That's unheard of in this business," said Philip Callen, who moved to New York several years ago but flies in every season to play George Bailey.

While most of the company members do dead-on impressions of the beloved film characters, Callen avoids Stewart's stutter and boyish enthusiasm, opting instead for a more mature, sadder hero.

"If you do Jimmy Stewart, it sort of takes you out of the story," said Callen, who has rarely watched the movie since taking the role.

During their initial rehearsal this month, cast members huddled around microphones, scripts in hand — not that they needed them. Seeing actors read from text is part of the production's attempt to evoke what it was like to attend a 1940s radio show, a wildly popular form of entertainment back when few households owned television sets.

For those who attend the performance, there are Christmas carols before the show and a chance to mingle with the cast afterward.

Pete Zellmer, the St. Paul Hotel's director of marketing and sales, estimates that 40 percent of attendees are repeat customers.

"Guests have become family," he said.

Now that family will include WCCO's listening audience, which stretches across much of North America at night, thanks to the station's 50,000-watt signal.

It remains to be seen whether younger people will take a break from their smartphones to engage in such an old-fashioned form of entertainment.

"Kids who are 14 or 18 or so are much closer to their imagination — and this really gives your imagination a workout," he said. "As tech-savvy as they may be, I think they should give it a try. I think they'll fall in love with it the way 50 million people used to."

Neal Justin • 612-673-7431