The show

Bing Marlow has the microphone and the stories. Vivian Vale has the microphone beside him and the actual running order. Chester, the floor manager, has a stack of placards telling everyone when to applaud. Together they put out a full Christmas Eve broadcast: Christmas standards, a crooner, comedy, sponsor spots, sing-alongs on the carols everyone already knows, and a lineup of featured singers, each taking the vintage microphone for a number of their own.

Across the stage, in a present-day attic, a group of kids has found an old radio that should not work. It is picking up that broadcast anyway, seventy years gone, and it will not tune to anything else. Maggie, the oldest, is running a guessing game about the song their great-grandfather played every Christmas Eve. The radio plays everything except that one.

The Narrator talks you through the whole night from an armchair, dry and warm, in the manner of Jean Shepherd, the grown-up voice of A Christmas Story. Under the comedy and the carols is a story about waiting, and about what a family hands down. Children in the audience are invited up for the Christmas Eve reading of "'Twas the Night Before Christmas," and the night ends with the whole room on its feet, singing.

Who is on stage

Each production is cast from its own community, by open audition, so the people on stage may be people you know, or even your neighbors. Guest singers can change from one performance to the next (you may even spot a local celebrity or three), and a local school choir is invited to sing at one or more of the performances. Your program has tonight's cast.

Bring the show to your town

Christmas on the Dial is put on by community organizations, often as a holiday fundraiser, with a cast from their own town. If you would like to bring it to yours, Curtain & Cause books and licenses the show.