When you have an "Applause" sign that lights up at a play in a theater, it's guaranteed applause.

"It's A Wonderful Life Live Radio Play," through Dec. 21, Pennsylvania Playhouse, Bethlehem, has an "Applause" sign that lights up.

The sign isn't necessary. Audiences would applaud anyway.

Usually, actors are off-book, i.e., memorize the script, before opening night.

With "It's A Wonderful Life Live Radio Play," a two-hour (with intermission) comedy based on the well-known Jimmy Stewart movie written by Joe Landry and directed by Zane Bachert, the 10-member cast carry scripts and reads from them.

If you think that's a problem, it's not. The scripts don't get in the way of the often silly faces, multiple character voice inflections and effectively affected canters of the cast.

Radio is theater of the imagination. This play reimagines it.

Bachert, who heads up Tamaqua Area Community Theatre and is in his Pennsylvania Playhouse directorial debut, has managed quiite a feat in keeping the cast from stepping on each other's lines, and each other as they step up to the microphones.

The set and lighting design by Brett Oliveira cleverly recreates a radio station studio, WBFE, complete with a Foley, or sound effects table, and that "Applause" sign, as well as "On-Air" signs.

That's part of the fun in seeing this show. You, as the audience, are the radio play's studio audience. In this, the Pennsylvania Playhouse three-bleachers seating creates a cozy atmosphere.

Each actor plays multiple characters. Among the most memorable:

Paul Rossi is ominous as Mr. Potter.

Veronica Bocian is a sweet and loyal wife as Mary Bailey.

Brian Weisko is polite to a fault as George Bailey, who saves the Bedford Falls Savings & Loan only to see his life flash before him.

Kate Egging is fetchingly versatile as Violet and George's mom Rose Bailey.

Seth Rohrbach is the hapless brother Harry Bailey.

Jonathan Kerbein is the sound effects technician, as is Syd Stauffer, who also creates several memorable characters.

Harold Minor plays Clarence the angel as a kind of Freudian therapist.

Mark Boyer is Martini the bar owner and many other characters.

Jeanie Olah also jumps believably from one role to the other.

The radio commercials, especially that for Bremel Hair Tonic, are especially funny.

It's said in "It's A Wonderful Life," that "every time a bell rings an angel gets his wings."

What happens when a tear falls?

See "It's A Wonderful Life Live Radio Play" at Pennsylvania Playhouse and find out.