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Photo by Charmain Z. Brackett Cast members rehearse a dance number from It’s a Wonderful Life: The Musical, which will open for three consecutive weekends the Friday after Thanksgiving in Aiken. Juli Davis has never seen the 1946 Christmas classic film, It’s a Wonderful Life with Jimmy Stewart and Donna Reed, but she knew she had to audition for the musical version of the show.

“I read the script, and it made me cry,” said Davis, who plays Mary Hatch Bailey in the play, which the Aiken Community Playhouse will present for three consecutive weekends beginning Nov. 27.

The story is about a man named George Bailey whose life has not gone the way he planned. In a moment of desperation on Christmas Eve, he contemplates suicide but is saved by an angel who shows him what his life would have been like had he never been born. He realizes that despite the unplanned directions he’s taken he has had a wonderful life.

Director Danny Lee said he found the musical version of the play on the Internet.

“We were supposed to do the straight play, but I did not like the script,” he said. “I’ve always loved the movie. It lends itself so well to a musical.”

And the musical version is a close facsimile to the original, he said.

“This is even more family friendly than even the movie. The movie is really dark, but the musical talks about the potential in everyone,” he said.

It’s A Wonderful Life: The Musical will be staged at 8 p.m. Nov. 27 and 28, Dec. 4, 5, 11 and 12 and 3 p.m., Dec. 6 at the Washington Center for the Performing Arts, 126 Newberry St., Aiken.

Tickets are $20 for adults, $18 for senior citizens, $15 for students and $9 for students 12 and under.

For information, call (803) 648- 1438 or visit www. aikencommunityplayhouse.com