Celebrate a very Capra Christmas

It’s such a wonderful life. Frank Capra’s beloved 1946 film “It’s a Wonderful Life” starring Jimmy Stewart and Donna Reed tells the story of an angel named Clarence who shows George Bailey just how wonderful his life is. It has inspired an original opera making its San Francisco premiere this season and a live-cast radio play performed throughout the country. Of course, seeing the original on the big screen is still a great experience.

San Francisco

In the San Francisco Opera’s telling of the story, Clarence becomes Clara, a “secondtier angel desperate to earn her wings.” The music is by Jake Heggie; the libretto is by Gene Scheer. It is sung in English, and the costumes are divine (lots of fluffy wings). “Our point was not to put the movie onstage but to correlate it musically,” Scheer said. The opera company, which co-commissioned the piece, chose to focus on how Clara learns what it means to help someone, a perfect holiday message. Tickets start at $37 for performances at 7:30 p.m. Thursday and Dec. 1, 4, 7; and 2 p.m. Dec. 9. Info: sfopera.com

Nationwide

Joe Landry’s live 1940s-style radio adaptation of “Wonderful Life” seems to be onstage everywhere, from the Artists Repertory Theatre in Portland, Ore. (Dec. 6-30, $40, www.artistsrep .org) to the St. Paul Hotel in St. Paul, Minn. (Dec. 6-24, $94 with dinner, saintpaul hotel.com) and to the Irish Repertory Theatre in New York City (through Dec. 31, $50, irishrep.org). In the Southland, it’s playing at Stages Theatre in Fullerton on selected dates through Dec. 23, $20 to $22, stagesoc .org, and the Pasadena Playhouse on Dec. 12-23, $25, pasadenaplayhouse .org.

San Pedro

Catch this big-screen showing of the original black-andwhite film inside the Art Deco Warner Grand Theatre, which opened Jan. 20, 1931. The theater (which is on the National Register of Historic Places) retains its grand movie palace style, with sweeping curves and lines, and a mesmerizing sunburst ceiling. The movie will screen at 6 p.m. Dec. 23; tickets cost $12 for general admission, $9 for seniors and children. Info: spiffest.org