The Gladstone Theatre is bringing back the “golden age” of radio with its new production, The Radio Show.
A mix of old radio broadcasts, as well as dance and music, from the 1940s, the original piece of theatre art was created by the Gladstone’s own production team.
“When you get a few creative minds in a room together, it always gets bigger than you originally had planned,” said Gladstone owner Steve Martin.
What began as a small idea to run on the “dark night” Mondays, the play became a big production planning to run for two weeks.
Martin recalls the crew talking about doing the play on Mondays and said, “You know what, we can make this into a full-fledged show.”
With their goal of “experiencing theatre,” Martin said the Gladstone is bringing in innovative ideas and improvisation.
Martin and his wife own the Arthur Murray Dance Studio and have brought in students from the school to perform the swing dance numbers.
“We are using a lot of our students and the dancing is not necessarily choreographed,” Martin said. “We wanted the dancers to just have fun and to be completely free so that they are all just free style.”
Martin said the show will relate to all ages.
Seniors will remember what it was like in that era, and those who were not there can appreciate the simple humour of those times and enjoy the comedy of the melodrama.
That golden age of radio is reflected through the intimate connection the actors maintain with the audience.
“It’s a lot of the actors engaging in improve and interacting with the audience because the audience is part of
the show, they are the studio audience,” Martin said. “When we listen to the old radio shows you can hear the studio audience laughing and carrying on.”
The audience will also play an important role on March 21 with the 1940s costume contest.
“We want the audience to feel that they are a part of it,” Martin said.