Broadway is getting its own version of Bedford Falls this winter. It's a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play is set to open at the Broadhurst Theatre on West 44th Street, bringing Andrew Rannells, Megan Hilty, Tituss Burgess, Lisa Rinna and Harry Hamlin to Manhattan for a strictly limited nine-week holiday engagement.
Preview performances begin November 4, with an official opening set for November 18 and the run concluding January 3, 2027, according to the Shubert Organization. The show marks the Broadway debut of Joe Landry's adaptation, which reimagines Frank Capra's classic as a 1940s broadcast performed live from a radio studio, complete with a foley artist generating sound effects onstage and holiday carols filling the commercial breaks, as reported by Time Out.
A Real-Life Couple Returns to the Same Stage
Rinna will play Violet and additional characters, while Hamlin takes on Mr. Potter and other roles. The pair are married in real life and previously starred together on Broadway in 2007 in the musical Chicago, a detail noted by Parade. Nearly two decades later, the two are set to share a stage again, this time inside a vintage radio station rather than a Chicago courtroom.
Rounding out the leads, Andrew Rannells will play George Bailey, Megan Hilty will play Mary Bailey, and Tituss Burgess will play Clarence. Per the Time Out report, five principal actors voice dozens of Bedford Falls characters across the show's 90 minutes, which runs without an intermission. Rannells and Hilty are both two-time Tony Award nominees, while Burgess is a six-time Emmy Award nominee, according to the Shubert Organization.
Ticket Buyers Should Note Hilty's Scheduled Absences
Prospective theatergoers hoping to catch Hilty as Mary Bailey should plan carefully. The actress is scheduled to be absent from select performances between November 6 and December 20, 2026, per TodayTix. Tickets for the production are available through Telecharge, according to Time Out's report.
Four-time Tony Award winner Jerry Zaks directs the production, with design work from Tony-winning scenic and costume designer Santo Loquasto, lighting designer Kenneth Posner and sound designer Palmer Hefferan, as detailed by TheaterMania. Andy Einhorn provides music direction, and Zaks has said the radio-play format combines the charm of a bygone era with surprises for modern audiences, per Time Out.
From a Connecticut Stage to a Broadway House
Playwright Joe Landry first premiered the adaptation in 1996 at Connecticut's Stamford Center for the Arts, and it has since become one of the most frequently produced holiday plays in American regional, community and school theaters, according to the entry on Wikipedia. Landry has traced the play's beginnings to a friend's request for a stage version he could direct at Fairfield High School, Time Out reports.
The source material has its own unlikely origin story. Frank Capra's 1946 film was adapted from Philip Van Doren Stern's 1943 short story The Greatest Gift, which Stern self-published and mailed to 200 recipients as a Christmas card after magazine publishers rejected it, according to Rutgers University. The film itself initially underperformed at the box office and only achieved its iconic holiday status after a 1974 copyright renewal oversight let television stations broadcast it for free for nearly two decades, per the UConn Law Library.
The Broadhurst Theatre itself carries its own slice of New York history. Designed by architect Herbert J. Krapp, the venue opened in 1917, is a designated New York City landmark, and seats 1,218 patrons across two levels, according to Wikipedia's entry on the theater. It has previously hosted productions including Cabaret, Grease and Mamma Mia!.
Interest in the Bailey family's story is already circulating beyond Broadway this fall. Fort Worth recently rolled out the red carpet for a biopic exploring Jimmy Stewart's military service and his iconic turn as George Bailey in the original film, giving fans two very different ways to revisit Bedford Falls this holiday season.
