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theatre review

It was 70 years this month that It's a Wonderful Life, Frank Capra's tear-jerker about the rewards of self-abnegation, first flickered on a cinema screen before a postwar audience. The great film critic James Agee, reviewing its New York premiere, called it "one of the most efficient sentimental pieces since A Christmas Carol."

Efficient, yes, and seemingly just as durable. Other favourite holiday movies have since laid claim to our hearts – A Christmas Story, Die Hard (well, at least in my household) – but Capra's fable of a small-town good Samaritan rescued from suicide by a second-class angel on Christmas Eve is still capable of leaving us as mushy as melting snow.

So it is with Soulpepper's new production at the Bluma Appel Theatre. Our emotion, however, is owing entirely to the effectiveness of the story, not to the production itself, which is busy but strangely lacklustre.

Director Albert Schultz has chosen Philip Grecian's popular 2003 adaptation, which turns the screenplay into an old-time radio drama, performed live in a studio. It's a conceit that has worked well in the past – notably in Canadian Stage's 2008 production, also at the Bluma.

This time, though, it becomes an impediment. The actors feel constrained behind their vintage microphones, while all the clever sound effects, created by three onstage foley artists (Christef Desir, Daniel Mousseau and Marcel Stewart) as well as the 13 other cast members, are frequently a distraction.

I say "strangely lacklustre" because Soulpepper usually does a swell job with this sort of mid-20th-century Americana. Yet, while the acting is good, even occasionally delightful (Michelle Monteith as the hero's little daughter, Zuzu; Ellie Moon as his cousin, Tilly), none of it is inspired.

Gregory Prest is said hero, George Bailey, who spends his life deferring his own desires to help others. It's an impossible role: You either have to imitate Jimmy Stewart's unforgettable film performance or try, perhaps foolishly, to make the part your own. Prest mostly opts to duplicate Stewart's vocal mannerisms – or maybe he just can't escape them.

Raquel Duffy does her best Donna Reed as George's saintly wife, Mary. Diego Matamoros plays the evil banker, Mr. Potter, with suitable flintiness but little relish. Oliver Dennis is predictably droll as the elderly angel.

Soulpepper already has two successful renditions of holiday classics in its repertoire: A Christmas Carol and Parfumerie. In its present state, It's a Wonderful Life doesn't seem destined to join them.

It's a Wonderful Life continues through Dec. 31 (soulpepper.ca).

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