For the third year, Richardson Theatre Centre has staged their holiday radio play. By now an industry standard, a radio play reveals the actors as they broadcast: zany skits, carols sung with gusto or melancholy, by choir, duet and solo. (Songs are meticulous, harmonious, with flawless phrasing. Not a klinker among them.) And certainly, the Emcee, with his perpetual line of shtick, and groan worthy gags. The formidable ensemble consists of twelve different players, cross cast in sketches and musical numbers. WRTC’s Holiday Show gives us a feel for the cast, behind the scenes. We catch a glimpse of the characters when the ON THE AIR sign is given a break.
Since this particular iteration is set during World War 2, the show is dedicated to the soldiers overseas. Slides and letters to and from home, equal parts comic and wistful. There’s also a fizzy energy: cast and crew jazzed and eager. Contagious as the cocktail flu. These merrymakers are versatile and limber, shifting gears and wielding banter with precision. There’s the brusque gumshoe and congenial, ditzy lady. There’s the squabbling couple and litany of commercials, so characteristic of a time, when everybody got their news and relief from movies or films, or the radio. The flavor and creativity of entertainers like George Burns and Gracie Allen, The Shadow, Orson Welles, Hedda Hopper… and of course, the striving but no less spectacular artists, are so different from today.
Now for the Third Christmas, Richardson Theatre Center has presented this bright, nonsensical, vivid revue, suffused with sincerity and delight. They capture the essence of Christmas spirit, avoiding tropes and putting a fresh slant on the season. The audience is convivial, stoked for this eccentric, buoyant channel of enchantment and humanity. Nothing wrong with A Christmas Carol, The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, White Christmas, Holiday Inn, but thanks to RTC, there’s room for fresh material.
From December 5th-21st, 2025, Richardson Theatre Center featured their Annual Holiday Radio Show (with hearty thanks to Rusty Harding). 518 West Arapaho Road, Suite 113, Richardson, Texas 75080. 972-699-1130. richardsontheatrecentre.net