By KATHY L. GREENBERG | Tribune correspondent | Published: November 24, 2009

Zuzu’s petals. Bedford Falls. Jimmy Stewart. Clarence the Second-Class Angel. Ring any bells? It should if you’ve ever watched the 1946 movie “It’s a Wonderful Life.” Frank Capra’s classic has pretty much become ubiquitous in American culture, so even if you’ve never seen it (gasp!), you’re sure to appreciate Steve Murray’s stage adaptation, “This Wonderful Life.”

American Stage Theatre Company produced this touching one-man tribute, directed by Todd Olson and starring the highly watchable Christopher Swan. Swan plays the role of Narrator and All the Residents of Bedford Falls. For approximately 80 minutes, he enthusiastically retells the cautionary tale of George Bailey, that “scurvy little spider” Mr. Potter and the events that lead to George’s crisis of faith.

Quick plot summary: George is a frustrated man who only realizes his worth when an angel shows him a world that never knew him. And it’s not pretty.

American Stage Theatre Company produced this touching one-man tribute to 'It's A Wonderful Life,' directed by Todd Olson and starring the highly watchable Christopher Swan.

The validity of Murray’s “CliffsNotes” version of the sweet but Capra-corny holiday pleaser seemed dubious at first. Words like “overkill,” “why” and “yada yada yada” came to mind. The playwright was probably banking on the story’s inherent goodness to offset the making of a redundant blunder. But, by gum, it worked. Between Swan’s everyman appeal and Murray’s loving script, it became harder and harder to blow off the notions of life being a gift, believing in yourself, generosity of spirit and … yada yada yada.

Under the glow of spare but illustrative special effects, Swan sprang deftly from one character to the next — from a sweetly nostalgic narrator to a Jimmy Stewart-inspired George to fragile-voiced Zuzu to the chair-bound, crotchety jerk Mr. Potter. He brought dimension to both stable and fleeting characters using malleable voices, facial expressions and personas. Swan was charming and quite moving, especially in the scenes depicting George at his lowest point.

By stripping away cameras and cast, rendering 130 minutes of sentimental goo into a Jell-O Snack Pack cup, Murray brought out the best parts of the film. There’s brilliance in effectively messing with tradition, which must make Murray a pretty bright guy.

Note to those who have never seen “It’s a Wonderful Life”: Watch it already. Then check out the recap at American Stage.

THEATER REVIEW

‘This Wonderful Life’

WHEN: Through Dec. 27; 7:30 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday, 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, 3 p.m. Saturday and Sunday

WHERE: American Stage Theatre Company at the Raymond James Theatre, 163 Third St. N., St. Petersburg; call (727) 823-7529 or visit www.americanstage.org

HOW MUCH: $26-$45, depending on date and time of performance

RUNNING TIME: Approximately 80 minutes

Tim Allen, The Santa Clause

After Scott Calvin (Tim Allen) inadvertently causes Santa Claus to fall off his roof, the divorced father and businessman ends up accidentally assuming the jolly old elf’s identity and all the responsibilities that go with it. He awakes the next day thinking it was all a dream, but as time passes, he begins to pack on the pounds and grows a long white beard he can’t seem to lose. Talk about contractual obligations!

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Elizabeth Mitchell, The Santa Clause 2: The Mrs. Clause

Every great Santa needs a Mrs. Claus — and eight years into his contract, Scott Calvin realizes he must find a mate or Christmas will cease to exist. Enter principal Carol Newman (Lost’s Elizabeth Mitchell), who Santa Scott meets after his son gets in trouble at school. The two soon end up happily ever after, even though the following Christmas, Mitchell’s pregnant Mrs. Claus worries that Santa will be out making his deliveries while she’s making one of her own.

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Ed Asner, Elf

After an orphan baby crawls into Santa’s bag of toys and is accidentally carried back to the North Pole, Santa Claus (Ed Asner) has the baby raised as an elf. Sure, the movie is mostly about Buddy (Will Ferrell) and his attempt to reconnect with his real dad, but Asner adds wisdom and charm to the role, two vital ingredients in any Santa depiction.

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Paul Giamatti, Fred Claus

What would happen if Santa had a deadbeat younger brother? That’s exactly what Nicholas (Paul Giamatti) is up against with sibling Fred (Vince Vaughn), who claims living in Santa’s shadow has made him the way he is. When Nick has to bail his baby brother out of jail, Fred is forced to become an honorary elf in Santa’s workshop. Santa never stops giving.

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Miranda Richardson, Fred Claus

The British actress’ good-hearted Mrs. Claus disapproves of brother-in-law’s Fred’s antics. She urges her hubby, Nick, not to bail his brother out all the time. But naturally, everyone’s one big happy family by the end.

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Edmund Gwenn, Miracle on 34th Street

Did you know Santa’s an Oscar winner? Or at least one of his portrayers is. The late Gwenn picked up a supporting actor statuette for his incarnation of Kris Kringle, who is institutionalized in the film because he claims he really is Santa. “Now I know there is a Santa Claus!” Gwenn said upon receiving his Oscar.

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Billy Bob Thornton, Bad Santa

While most of the Santas on our list made the cut for being upstanding, heartwarming role models, Billy Bob Thornton’s angry, alcoholic department store-robbing mall Santa is a dose of reality for adults. It doesn’t hurt that he — and his interactions with his partner-in-crime elf (Tony Cox) and “the Kid” (Brett Kelly) — are pretty hysterical.

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Lauren Graham, Bad Santa

OK, she’s not technically a Mrs. Claus because she’s not married to Santa. (And her Santa of choice is skinny, drinks whiskey and wears a fake beard.) But Graham’s raunchy nymphomaniac bartender is as close as you’ll get in this thoroughly non-Christmas-y Christmas movie. (Bonus: The role is a far cry from her Gilmore Girls character.)

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David Huddleston, Santa Claus: The Movie

This 1985 flick tells two tales. The first half explores how good ol’ St. Nick became Santa Claus way back in the 14th century after he was given immortality to become the “Chosen One.” After assuming his new identity, the perfectly portly and jolly Santa travels to the modern day, where he must deal with his head elf, Patch (Dudley Moore), who winds up in cahoots with an evil toy manufacturer.

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Judy Cornwell, Santa Claus: The Movie

Mrs. Claus gets a first name here — Anya — and credit for coming up with Santa’s staple Nice and Naughty list. Anya didn’t believe disobedient children ought to be rewarded with presents. Now that’s what you call tough love.

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Douglas Seale, Ernest Saves Christmas

Don’t overlook this movie because of its comedic tomfoolery — Seale’s Santa is one of the better portrayals on celluloid. After he leaves his magic sack in the taxi driven by Ernest (Jim Varney), he struggles to convince anyone he is Santa and complete his task of hiring a successor (Oliver Clark). Though all the problems in the plot are resolved, the film also delivers an emotional message about the true meaning of Christmas.

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Santa Claus Conquers the Martians

What? You don’t think of Martians when you think of Christmas? Rich’s portrayal of Mrs. Claus is most notable for being the first live-action depiction of Mrs. Claus in a motion picture. And, you know, because she helped Santa battle Martians.

By DAVE NICHOLSON | The Tampa Tribune
Published: December 1, 2009

The Florida Strawberry Festival’s eclectic lineup draws from rock, country, including Lynyrd Skynyrd and Darius Rucker.

PLANT CITY – The Florida Strawberry Festival’s headline entertainment is going beyond country in 2010 to include rock music’s REO Speedwagon and Lynyrd Skynyrd, best known for the 1974 Southern anthem “Sweet Home Alabama.”

The festival stage will include members of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, including Lynyrd Skynyrd and the Righteous Brothers’ Bill Medley, and Country Music Hall of Fame members Roy Clark and Mel Tillis.

The festival is best known as a country music venue but “we worked real hard to get a cross section and something for everyone,” festival General Manager Paul Davis said of the 2010 lineup.

The annual celebration of the area’s biggest crop is March 4-14 at the festival grounds, 2202 W. Reynolds St.

Entertainer Debbie Reynolds will be featured on the festival’s new Red Hat Day on March 9, intended to attract members of the Red Hat Society.

Big-name entertainers include the Country Music Association’s 2009 new artist of the year Darius Rucker, former Trick Pony member Heidi Newfield, and singer and two-time “Dancing with the Stars” winner Julianne Hough.

The festival didn’t stray far from its roots with such festival favorites as The Oak Ridge Boys, Patty Loveless and Josh Turner. Gospel music star Michael W. Smith also returns to the festival stage.

The lineup also includes comedian Bill Engvall, whose credits include hosting CMT’s “Country Home Fried Videos.”

“It’s probably as diverse as it can be,” said festival director Joe Newsome, who has headed the entertainment committee for more than 30 years.

The festival decided to broaden its offerings by bringing in acts that appeal to more than country fans, Newsome said.

The festival attempts to juggle getting the best acts without busting its budget, and often faces an uphill battle because of its limited run and the expense of top entertainers, Newsome said. Many new entertainers prefer to tour with an established act, he said.

“This is our toughest year ever,” he said.

After hitting a high of $45 for Taylor Swift’s 2008 festival show, top concert prices will recede this year. The most expensive tickets, $25 and $30, are for Lynyrd Skynyrd’s March 14 show.

At each headline show, there are about 3,000 free grandstand seats available on a first-come basis.

Reserved-seat prices do not include gate admission, which remains steady at $8 in advance for ages 13 and older and $4 for ages 6 to 12. Children 5 and younger are admitted free with a paying adult. Admission at the gate will be $10 and $5, respectively.

The festival worked to keep prices down for 2010, realizing that times are tough for many of its fans, Davis said.

“We think this is some of the greatest entertainment for the dollar,” he said. “For the price of a night out at the movies, a family can enjoy a day of entertainment at the festival.”

IF YOU GO

Here is the lineup of headline entertainment, including artist, performance time and date, and ticket prices:

ROY CLARK, 3:30 p.m. March 4, $10 and $15

BILLY CURRINGTON, 7:30 p.m. March 4, $15 and $20

BOBBY BARE, 3:30 p.m. March 5, $10 and $15

JULIANNE HOUGH, 7:30 p.m. March 5, $10 and $15

TO BE ANNOUNCED, 3:30 p.m. March 6

MICHAEL W. SMITH, 7:30 p.m. March 6, $15 and $20

HEIDI NEWFIELD, 3:30 p.m. March 7, $10 and $15

DARIUS RUCKER, 7:30 p.m. March 7, $20 and $25

MEL TILLIS, 3:30 p.m. March 8, $10 and $15

BILL ENGVALL, 7:30 p.m. March 8, $20 and $25

DEBBIE REYNOLDS, 3:30 p.m. March 9, $10 and $15

JOSH TURNER, 7:30 p.m. March 9, $15 and $20

AARON TIPPIN, 3:30 p.m. March 10, $10 and $15

BILL MEDLEY/SAM MOORE, 7:30 p.m. March 10, $15 and $20

THE OAK RIDGE BOYS, 3:30 p.m. March 11, $10 and $15

REO SPEEDWAGON, 7:30 p.m. March 11, $15 and $20

TO BE ANNOUNCED, 3:30 p.m. March 12

TO BE ANNOUNCED, 7:30 p.m. March 12

CLAY WALKER/LEE BRICE, 3:30 p.m. March 13, $10 and $15

PATTY LOVELESS, 7:30 p.m. March 13, $10 and $15

SARA EVANS, 3:30 p.m. March 14, $15 and $20

LYNYRD SKYNYRD, 7:30 p.m. March 14, $25 and $30

Concert and gate admission tickets go on sale at 8 a.m. Monday at www.flstrawberryfestival.com or the Florida Strawberry Festival ticket office at 2209 W. Oak Ave. To order by telephone, call (813) 754-1996.

Reporter Dave Nicholson can be reached at (813) 627-4727.

Aggressive, early discounts by e-tailers prompted heavy buying through “Cyber Monday,” but consumer holiday spending could falter overall.

What began as a strong shopping season for online retailers may fizzle as cash-strapped consumers quickly exhaust tight holiday budgets.

Lured by steep discounts, consumers showed a propensity to spend as yearend shopping got under way after Thanksgiving. By late afternoon on Nov. 30, the day’s online sales were up 11% from a year earlier, according to online marketing firm Coremetrics. That matched the percentage increase registered on Nov. 27, the day after Thanksgiving, when Web sales climbed 11%, to $595 million, according to researcher comScore (SCOR).

With unemployment high and expected to keep rising, households are setting aside less money for yearend holiday shopping. That means the late-November shopping surge may not last, retailing experts say. “People could be spending a lot of their budget up front,” says Jeffrey Grau, senior analyst at online marketing research firm eMarketer. “Things are going to slow down as people have less money to spend, and they are going to exhaust their money earlier.” The average consumer plans to spend $682.74 on goods purchased online and offline during the holidays. That’s 3.3% less than last year, according to a National Retail Federation (NRF) survey of 8,431 consumers conducted in September and October. Despite the recent brisk traffic, online sales for all of November and December may still rise by only 5.4%, to $30 billion this year, according to eMarketer.

Deeper, Wider Discounts This Year

To encourage further spending, retailers may have to resort to even deeper discounts, which can crimp margins and reduce revenues. More than 70% of holiday shoppers will purchase from discounters this year, according to the NRF. The home page for JCPenney.com (JCP) boasted “30,000 deals” and said that Nov. 30 would be the last day shoppers could receive free shipping on purchases of at least $25. During the week that included Nov. 27, dubbed Black Friday, retailers cut prices on LCD TVs by an average of 22% from earlier in November. As a result, sales of those sets rose 6% from a year earlier, according to consultant iSuppli.

Early discounting was rampant. At retailers including Amazon.com (AMZN), Best Buy (BBY), WalMart (WMT), and Target (TGT), price cuts on Apple (AAPL) products “were more aggressive than usual, with discounts as much as 20% vs. previous years’ [cuts] of 11% to 13%,” wrote Shaw Wu, an analyst at Kaufman Brothers, in a Nov. 30 report. Compared with last year, when the U.S. economy was still in recession, “more items will be on sale” this holiday season, says Scott Silverman, executive director of Shop.org, a division of NRF. “Across the board, we’ll see a higher percentage off.”

Aggressive discounting and marketing may do less harm to online retailers than to brick-and-mortar stores. “It potentially lowers margins for the offline players,” says Aaron Kessler, an analyst with Kaufman Brothers. Online retailers are expected to make up at least part of the margin shortfall with higher volume and sales of a greater variety of goods. Amazon, for instance, could benefit from sales of such high-margin items as clothing.

For Amazon, a “Perfect Storm”

Forrester Research (FORR) expects Web shopping to rise 8% in November and December, year over year, while overall retail may stay flat or even decline from 2008, according to various estimates. The Web’s share of holiday spending may rise to 6.7% of the total, from 6.3% last year, according to Susquehanna Financial.

Electronic retailing giants Amazon and eBay (EBAY) may have the most to gain from heavy discounting, analysts say. “Amazon literally has unbeatable prices,” says Charlie Wolf, senior analyst at Needham & Co. “Their share of the wallet is going to continue going up. Amazon could experience the perfect storm this Christmas.”

Amazon, which said sales of its Kindle electronic book reader reached a record in November, is luring traffic while some online and offline rivals see declines. On Thanksgiving Day, traffic to Amazon.com rose 30% from a year earlier, according to consultant Hitwise, while traffic fell by 3% to Sears.com (SHLD) and by 7% to Kmart.com. Some smaller e-tailers lost share as well, with traffic to Overstock.com (OSTK) falling 17% from last year. Amazon has forecast fourth-quarter sales growth of 21% to 36%. That may be too modest, says Lindsay, who says Amazon may gain more than 40%. 

Kharif is a senior writer for BusinessWeek.com in Portland, Ore.