Beau Meyer
The Bailey family in a posed shot: Son, mom, dad, sister.
The Bailey Family in Capital City Theatre's new musical version of 'It's a Wonderful Life.'
How do you approach re-telling a story that is already a Christmas classic?
The 1946 film It’s A Wonderful Life has certainly achieved that status — it’s hard to imagine that anyone in the country is not already familiar with the storyline of George Bailey and his encounter with the angel Clarence. But in a new musical adaptation from Capital City Theatre, the tale is not only updated but full of songs and dance numbers. It plays in the Mitby Theater at Madison College Nov. 22-Dec. 1.
The team behind the project, Andrew Abrams (music) and John Atkins (lyrics and book), met during a theater writing workshop in New York City in 2002. There they were tasked with writing a character-focused song from the film. They wrote “I Forget,” a song about the main character’s uncle Billy, whose forgetfulness sets the drama in motion. The song was memorable enough for them to return to it 15 years later, when they decided to develop the song into a full-scale musical.
“We both really loved working together on that song,” Abrams tells Isthmus. They tried to renew work on it in 2002 and again in 2017, but other priorities got in the way. They picked it up again last year, seeking to develop a holiday show that the Capital City Theatre — where Abrams is artistic director — could perform every year. “We thought It’s A Wonderful Life is one of the most beloved films of all time. Why not finish it?” Abrams says. They completed a draft last December and finalized the play in October.
Abrams grew up in Madison and moved back to the area in 2017. Lyricist Atkins is based in New York and has collaborated with Abrams on several projects through the years, including adaptations of Topper, Practical Magic, and a musical about the life of Frankenstein author Mary Shelley.
Why transform a classic movie into a musical?
“Why should any movie be a musical?” asks Abrams. That's a hot topic in Broadway circles right now, he says, with the recent trend of Broadway transforming such movies as Mean Girls and even cartoons like SpongeBob SquarePants into musicals.
“What music can do is heighten moments,” he says. “If you want the audience to think or feel a certain way, music is amazing at that, because music is saying the things people don’t say. It adds layers.”
There’s also “something special” about the way being in a theater, sitting close to live actors and the set, makes a familiar story feel new and alive.
Music can also make scenes move more swiftly “and still convey the same amount of information,” Abrams says. That was important to Abrams and Atkins, because audience responses from a staged reading of the play last year suggested the play could be shorter and tighter.
Abrams keeps the musical styles of the songs authentic to the era of the film, drawing from the 1920s, ’30s, and ’40s and providing another emotional pathway into the world of the story.
There are minor updates in the casting and dialogue — for example, Bert the policeman and Ernie the cab driver are now played by women —but Abrams’ aim was not to completely reinvent an old tale.
Capital City casts most of its actors from the region, but draws from around the country as well. This production features actors from Chicago and New York City, as well as local talent.
Abrams hopes the musical version of It’s A Wonderful Life will be a new holiday tradition for the Madison area. That depends on how things go this year, he says. In the meantime, he’s excited to share this story, “especially right now, in a very divided world,” with the message that “there is still community, love, joy, and hope.”
