‘1940s Radio Hour’ captures spirit of war era

YOUNGSTOWN

Youngstown State University Theater will present “The 1940s Radio Hour,” a play with music. It opens Thursday and runs two weekends.

The play goes back to the era of live radio for a broadcast of “The Mutual Manhattan Variety Cavalcade” from the Hotel Astor’s Algonquin Room on Dec. 21, 1942. It captures the spirit of the era, when the world was at war and pop music meant “Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy.”

The harried producer copes with a drunken lead singer, a delivery boy who wants a chance in front of the microphone, the second banana who dreams of singing a ballad, and the trumpet-playing sound effects man.

The cast includes Joey Alvey of Cleveland; Connor Bezeredi, Salem; Claire Blackledge, Akron; Calvin Brown, Austintown; John Cruz, Mineral Ridge; Nikita Jones, Youngstown; Kaleigh Locketti, Austintown; Matt Malloy, Beaver, Pa.; Natalie Martzial, Boardman; Cheney Morgan, Boardman; Alex Samuels, Worthington, Ohio; Eric Shonk, Lancaster, Pa.; Kelly Sullivan, Youngstown; and Patrick Wagner, Akron.