It’s a Wonderful Life

Program Casting / Scenes and Synopsis

Salt Lake City, December 17 to December 23, 2021

Conceived, Directed and Choreographed by Derryl Yeager
Based on the Film by Frank Capra

Music
Sam Cardon

Set Design
Doug Ellis

Set Construction
Lynn Clark

Costume Design
Cheryl Yeager

Lighting Design
Kyle Baumann

Cast of Characters

Young George Bailey
Grayden Harrison

Young Harry Bailey
Ryder Harrison

Young Mary
Ava McCall

Young Violet
Kayten Olsen

George Bailey
Tommy Green

Mary Bailey
Hope Parker

Violet
Bailey Foreman

Harry Bailey
Michael Artiga

Bert
Owen Fulton

Ernie
Peiter Mortensen

Uncle Billy
Nick Hambrecht

Potter
Eymard Cabling

Potter’s Nurse
Veronica Cabling

Gower
Rick Macy

Clarence
Devin Neilson

Harry’s Wife
Madison Kunz

Pa Bailey
Derryl Yeager

Ma Bailey
Cheryl Yeager

Mary’s Mother
Laura Brick

Bailey Kids
Cohen Elliott Miranda Bosh Adin Pracic

Zuzu
Isla Harrison

O’Malley’s
Ruger Memmott Kassidi Balcer

Voice Overs

God
Toni Larimer

Joseph
Jesse Bennett

Clarence
Kim Blackett

Missionaries
Shannon Yeager

Company

Ayden Hammer Jeremy Platt Kiana Little
Samantha Jo Ruotsi Lea Kosterlitz Boston Cervinski Madison Bruce Austyn Bazzano Brianna James Emry Wride Lily Farrar Nancy Donnes

Kids

Nyah Hoppie Marley Speth Kannan Braithwaite
Shelby Nordhoff Sophie Lo Brooklyn Brenchley Lily Hanson

Additional Choreography

Ryan Francois Natasha Bitters Veronica Cabling
Bonnie Story Eldon Johnson Whitney Wilson
Diego Ballesteros Peiter Mortensen

Act I

Scene 1 - Somewhere in Heaven

On Christmas Eve, all of the citizens of the small town of Bedford Falls pray to the heavens to help George Bailey. God & Head Angel Joseph decide to send fledgling Guardian Angel Clarence down to earth to help out George, who is contemplating taking his own life. Joseph shows Clarence an overview of George’s life to this point so he can be fully prepared to help him in his hour of need.

Scene 2 - Bedford Falls Pond
Young George, Mary, Violet, Harry and their friends play in the snow and slide down the hill. George’s younger brother Harry slides into the pond and falls through the ice. George jumps in after him and saves him, but George catches a cold and loses the hearing in his left ear as a result.

Scene 3 - Downtown Bedford Falls
The people of Bedford Falls are out and about on a busy day. Mr. Potter, the rich miser who takes pleasure in financially controlling the lives of everyone in town, arrives, and the townspeople pretend to be nice to him.

Scene 4 - Gower’s Drug Store
George works for Mr. Gower while Mary and Violet vie for his attention. Mr. Gower receives a telegram, saying that his son has just died of influenza. Stricken with grief, Mr. Gower consoles himself with a bottle of alcohol in the back of the store. Left to themselves, the kids have fun together as George spins his lifelong dreams of travelling all over the world. Mr. Gower returns in a drunken rage and chases everyone away. He then starts to fill a prescription for a customer and mistakenly puts poison in the pills. George tries to warn him, but Gower won’t listen and tells him to deliver the pills anyway.

Scene 5 - Bailey Building and Loan
George doesn’t know what to do and decides to seek advice from his father. He arrives at the office and sees his father being badgered by Potter about the financial condition of the Building and Loan. Angry at seeing his father treated this way, George threatens Potter with the poisoned pills. Pa Bailey, disturbed by George’s interruption, sends him away.

Scene 6 - Gower’s Drug Store
George returns to Gower’s Drug Store without having delivered the pills, and Mr. Gower is furious. He starts hitting George, but George is able to stop the beating, by explaining to him that he saw him put poison into the pills by mistake. Mr. Gower is stricken with grief and asks George to forgive him. He realizes that George has saved him from accidentally poisoning someone, which would have ruined his business and his life.

Scene 7 - Downtown Bedford Falls
Young George and the kids magically transform into their older selves as the story continues. The whole town of Bedford Falls is behind George in his dreams to see the world!

Scene 8 - Downtown Bedford Falls
Bert the Cop and Ernie the Cabdriver, George’s best friends, dance with George until they are captivated by the wiles of Violet--obviously the hottest gal in town.

Scene 9 - Bailey Building and Loan
Pa Bailey tells George that he feels it’s a good time for him to become a partner with him in the Building and Loan, but George has bigger dreams and feels as if the Building and Loan and Bedford Falls are too small for him. Harry interrupts and whisks George off to the High School Dance.

Scene 10 - Bedford Falls High School
George and all the kids have fun dancing together. Violet has taken a particular liking to George; she sees him as a guy who can help her get out of Bedford Falls, but George’s life takes a different turn when he notices Mary and dances with her - sparks fly! Mary’s original date takes revenge by opening the dance floor to reveal the pool underneath, and everyone enjoys the spectacle of George, Mary and friends falling into the pool at the end of the evening.

15-Minute Intermission

Act II

Scene 1 - Granville Mansion
As George and Mary walk home after the dance, they pass by the old, abandoned Granville Mansion. George decides to “Lasso the Moon” for Mary. They take turns breaking windows with rocks for good luck and having a playful time, when they are interrupted by Harry, who tells George that their father has just had a stroke.

Scene 2 - Bailey Building and Loan Boardroom
The Board of the Building and Loan, feeling especially crotchety since Pa Bailey passed away, discuss what to do about the institution. George has postponed his travel plans to put things in order and is ready to move on, when the board decides to close the Building and Loan unless George stays and works there. George reluctantly decides to stay to make sure Bedford Falls has a financial alternative to Potter and his bank. George gives his travel money to Harry to go to college, with the idea that once Harry comes back, Harry will take over the Building and Loan.

Scene 3 - Bedford Falls
Four years later, Football Star Harry finally returns home. He is considered the catch of the century by all the girls in Bedford until, to their dismay, he announces he is already married. George discovers that Harry plans to work with his new father-in-law’s company, and he realizes he is stuck--the dreams he had of getting out of Bedford Falls are slipping away.

Scene 4 - Mary’s House
Ma Bailey, seeing George in his depressed state, sends him over to visit Mary who has just returned from college, too. George halfheartedly does so and is not very interested in Mary until she gets a phone call from Sam Wainright, an old school buddy who has made it big. George still clings to his dreams and wants no more interruptions but then falls head over heels for Mary. They get married and plan on fulfilling George’s lifelong dreams of travel on their honeymoon.

Scene 5 - Bedford Falls
Just as they are about to leave, a stock market crash triggers panic, and there is a run on the banks. The Building and Loan is inundated with depositors demanding their money back. Potter tries to take over the whole town by offering cash for everyone’s shares and vows to shut down the Building and Loan if they can’t stay open until 5 p.m. that day. Mary calms everyone down by offering the money she and George had saved for their honeymoon. George slowly hands out the money to his depositors, one by one, until there are only two dollars left. Uncle Billy brings in the safe, and they rejoice over their success in surviving the run on the bank and hope that mama and papa dollar create some babies fast!

Scene 6 - Granville Mansion
George’s dream of getting away from Bedford Falls has slipped away again, but Bert and Ernie have helped create a honeymoon suite at the Granville Mansion. Leaky and drafty, the leanness of their circumstances is overpowered by the love of his new wife, Mary.

Scene 7 - Bailey Park
Years pass. It’s now after World War II. Harry had become an ace pilot and saved a whole ship of soldiers. George continued to fight the war at home, raising a family and doing what he could to help the town. He managed the Building and Loan so well that he was able to create Bailey Park, a new subdivision where families could buy their first homes without having to crawl to Potter. The whole town turns out while George and Mary help bless the O’Malley Family’s first home.

Scene 8 - Downtown Bedford Falls
The day before Christmas, the town is buzzing with excitement over the return of their War Hero Harry Bailey. Uncle Billy is very excited, too, and while on his way to the Bank to make a deposit, runs into Potter. He enjoys rubbing Potter’s nose in the fact that the Baileys are so well liked and respected in the community. But Uncle Billy’s exuberance is dampened when he finds he has somehow lost the $8,000 deposit (found and stolen by Potter). George goes into a rage as he tries to help find the lost money. The loss of the money would bankrupt the Building and Loan. George goes to the only person who could help him—ironically, Potter. He asks Potter for a loan. Potter demands collateral, but when George presents Potter with his $15,000 life insurance policy, Potter laughs and tells George he is worth more dead than alive.

Scene 9 - Granville Mansion
The Bailey Family is preparing for Christmas when George returns, deeply depressed and worried. His whole life is crashing down around him. Suddenly, George sees only the troublesome things in his life and is even more upset when he finds out his daughter Zuzu has come home from school sick. She asks him to fix her rose. George pretends to but, instead, puts the petals in his pocket and becomes increasingly violent toward his family. He smashes up the symbols of his dreams of building bridges and travel before Mary kicks him out of the house.

Scene 10 - The Bridge With his last support gone, George contemplates suicide by throwing himself into the river. Clarence finally shows up and decides to distract George by jumping into the river himself, knowing that George would try to save him first before taking his own life.

15-Minute Intermission

Act III

Scene 1 - Bridge Watchman Bungalow
George and Clarence dry out in the Bridge Watchman’s Bungalow, and Clarence tries to tell George he is an angel who hasn’t got his wings yet. Still wracked with worry over his financial difficulties, George wishes he had never been born. This gives Clarence the idea of showing George what the world would have been like without him.

Scene 2 - Pottersville
As Clarence gets permission from up above to do so, Bedford Falls suddenly turns into current day Pottersville. A scene very foreign to George appears, and all of the familiar sights have changed.

Scene 3 - O’Malley’s Strip Club Clarence shows George the former Gower’s Drug Store which is now a strip club. Here he sees Bert, but Bert is a punk rocker now who doesn’t recognize George. He then sees Violet, the evening’s entertainment, and Mr. Gower, who is now the town drunk since he lost his business and went to jail for poisoning someone.

Scene 4 - Lucky Charm Casino The Building and Loan has now been turned into a Casino, where he discovers his mother Ma Bailey is a dealer. Clarence then shows George a vision of Uncle Billy who has gone crazy and lives in an asylum. His old buddy Ernie is a drug dealer.

Scene 5 - Pottersville Cemetery
Clarence shows George his Brother Harry’s gravestone. He discovers he had drowned the time he fell into the pond, because George wasn’t there to save him. The dead soldiers from the troop transport haunt George, too, because Harry wasn’t there to save them.

Scene 6 - Pottersville Library
Feeling the effects of all he has seen, George wants to see Mary. Clarence reluctantly does so: Mary is the Librarian and has never been married. George tries to get Mary to recognize him, but she doesn’t and screams to get away.

Scene 7 - Pottersville
All the old Building and Loan Board Members return and surround George, having been crippled by the greed and selfishness that is Potter’s legacy. George prays for relief and begs to live again.

Scene 8 - The Bridge Clarence, feeling he has accomplished his mission, transforms Pottersville back to Bedford Falls. After searching everywhere for George, Bert and Ernie find him at the Bridge and tell him to get home as soon as possible. George finds Zuzu’s rose petals in his pocket and rejoices in the knowledge that he is still alive.

Scene 9 - Granville Mansion George returns home and finds Mary and his kids there. One by one, all the people in Bedford Falls arrive to give money to George to get him out of his financial difficulties, in return for all he has done for them over the years. He realizes that he really does have a wonderful life and that George Bailey is truly the richest man in town! (And Clarence finally gets his wings!)