'It's a Wonderful Life' to Make Its Broadway Debut with Andrew Rannells

Andrew Rannells will lead a Broadway debut of "It's a Wonderful Life" during this year's holiday season, The New York Times has announced.

The production, described as "a live radio play," transposes Frank Capra's 1946 holiday perennial into the format of a vintage radio broadcast. Rannells, known for his Tony-nominated turns in "The Book of Mormon" and "The Boys in the Band," headlines a cast that spans Broadway regulars and screen veterans.

Megan Hilty joins him, bringing her own Broadway pedigree from "Wicked" and "9 to 5." The announced company also includes Tituss Burgess, the Emmy-nominated star of "Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt" whose stage credits date to "The Little Mermaid," alongside Harry Hamlin and Lisa Rinna, the married couple whose screen careers span "L.A. Law" and "The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills" respectively.

The "live radio play" format reimagines the story of George Bailey — the small-town banker whose despair on Christmas Eve is interrupted by an intervening angel — as a broadcast performance, a device with its own stage history. Adaptations of "It's a Wonderful Life" have long circulated in regional and holiday productions, but the title has never before reached Broadway. This staging changes that.

The timing is deliberate. The show will run during this year's holiday season, positioning it alongside the annual wave of seasonal programming that fills New York theaters each December. For Broadway, which has leaned increasingly on familiar film and television titles to anchor its calendar, a holiday-bound "It's a Wonderful Life" with a starry cast fits an established commercial formula.

The casting pairs name recognition across multiple audiences: Rannells and Hilty carry weight with theatergoers, Burgess brings a television following, and Hamlin and Rinna add a Hollywood profile. Producers of holiday entertainment have long courted exactly that mix.

Frank Capra's original film, based in part on Philip Van Doren Stern's short story "The Greatest Gift," entered the public domain for decades before rights questions were resolved, and its story has since become one of the most adapted narratives in American popular culture. Its arrival on Broadway had remained a conspicuous gap.

No further details — including theater, exact dates, or additional creative team — were included in the announcement. What is confirmed: Rannells, Hilty, Burgess, Hamlin and Rinna, a "live radio play," and a run timed to this year's holiday season on Broadway. Additional casting and scheduling details will determine whether the production becomes an annual fixture or a one-season event.