By John Peter
4 Stars
It takes guts and imagination to turn one of Hollywood's best loved movies into a musical, but Steve Brown (music, book and lyrics) and Francis Matthews (book and lyrics) have plenty of both. The result is a bustling, warm-hearted piece, with songs that function, not as separate numbers waiting to be applauded, but as part of the story and the creating of characters. We are in small-town America, in the 1930s Depression. George Bailey (Paul Thornley), an ambitious young businessman, won't give up. He's a generous man who learns the meaning of the greatest of American slogans, Everything Is Possible. This is the ideal feelgood show for our time: lively, serious, deeply felt but unsentimental. Look out, too, for Mr Potter (Paul Leonard), the meanest of bankers, who looks alarmingly like Dick Fuld, CEO of Lehman Brothers, who last year helped us into our own recession.
-
It's a Wonderful Life
10 September 2009
-
The Sunday Times
27 September 2009
4 Stars
-
The Stage
24 September 2009
With its despised banker and background of economic volatility, there was rarely going to be a more apt moment to launch the world premiere musical stage adaptation of It's a Wonderful Life. The question was could the travails of honourable George Bailey be given musical life without cloying sentimentality ruining the show's rhythm?
-
Variety
22 September 2009
A New Wolsey Theater presentation in association with Avalon Promotions of a musical in two acts with music by Steve Brown, book and lyrics by Brown and Francis Matthews, based on the Republic Entertainment motion picture, inspired by Philip Van Doren Stern's short story "The Greatest Gift." Directed by Peter Rowe. Musical direction, Dane Preece.
-
reviewsgate.com
20 September 2009
... and it gets better with age.
-
The Daily Mail
18 September 2009
HOLLYWOOD COMES TO TOWN...sort of
It's A Wonderful Life (New Wolsey Theatre, Ipswich)
Verdict: It's a wonderful show - 4 StarsThe Shawshank Redemption (Wyndham's Theatre, London)
Verdict: A stretch too far - 2 Stars -
www.onesuffolk.co.uk">www.onesuffolk.co.uk
18 September 2009
When movie director Frank Capra produced his James Stewart vehicle in 1946, he could have had little notion of what a classic it would become.
-
Ipswich 24
18 September 2009
New musical World Premiere at New Wolsey, Ipswich
-
Review from James Wade
17 September 2009
The play is set in the fictional town of Bedford Falls just after World War II. It sees George Bailey preparing for his suicide on Bedford Falls' bridge, when, personal angel ‘Ace' shows. He then tells his angel how he dreams of escape, and how every time he tries to escape he is grabbed back in to everyday Bedford Falls life. This is shown by his ‘unsung hero' attitude in the Bedford Falls community, until he wishes he was never born. He then sees his true place and impact on Bedford Falls with and without George Bailey.
-
Review from Lori Thurston
17 September 2009
‘It's a Wonderful Life' set from the 1920's till the late 1940's in the small American town of Bedford Falls, is the story of George Bailey, whose ambitions had been shattered by the suffocating demands of his unfulfilling life, causing him to resort to suicide.
-
East Anglian Daily Times
17 September 2009
SHOW WAS WONDERFUL
-
Plays International
16 September 2009
From cornball 1940s film to feel-good musical proves a journey well worth the taking.
-
The Evening Star
16 September 2009
A WONDERFUL PRODUCTION OF A WONDERFUL LIFE
-
BBC Suffolk Online
15 September 2009
It's a Wonderful Life is often called a timeless classic and will almost certainly be found towards the top of 'all time greatest film' lists. But will it work as a musical?
-
The Evening Star
10 September 2009