Oswego Playhouse Taps Into Radio Show Comedy with 'Diamond Daze'

Oswego Playhouse is ending summer with a light-hearted comedy from the Golden Age of radio: , a return to the radio-show format which has been so popular with audiences and actors alike.

Diamond Daze is a collection of comedic shorts and longer pieces drawn from actual radios shows of the 1940s.

Act one features several Jack Benny-like comedy skits and a full Ellery Queen mystery. One of the most enduring and popular characters from radio, Ellery Queen is the creation of Daniel Nathan and Manford Lepofsky. The character Ellery Queen is mystery writer and amateur detective. He would frequently help his father, a police detective, solve difficult cases. The radio show The Adventures of Ellery Queen aired from 1939 to 1948 on all three major radio networks—ABC, CBS and NBC. The episode of Ellery Queen that the Oswego Playhouse is producing is called One Diamond.

Act two will feature more shorts and a full episode of My Favorite Husband, the radio precursor to I Love Lucy. My Favorite Husband was chosen by director Daina Giesler as a tribute to famed comedian Lucille Ball. The radio show starred Ball, but unlike the television show, My Favorite Husband starred Richard Denning as Ball's husband instead of real-life husband Desi Arnez. Promoted as “the story of two people who live together and like it," the show aired on CBS from 1948 to 1951.

In addition to classic radio scripts, Diamond Daze will feature classic radio sound effects and even a few radio commercials.

“Watching how they make the sound effects is one of the best parts of radio theatre," Giesler said. “The whole company loves doing the radio plays. We've done them three or four times before. Once every couple of years, I guess.”

Actors find the radio plays to be fun and nostalgic, and audiences seem to agree because the radio format has been a big hit with them too.

“Comedies and mysteries were staples of radio,” Giesler said, adding that comedy teams, husband-wife teams and buddy teams like Abbot and Costello were very popular. “I tried to select episodes with contemporary appeal. I felt light entertainment would fit the mood of late summer.”

Diamond Daze will run August 19, 20 and 21 at the 's lower floor, where doors will open at 6:30 p.m. for the 8 p.m. curtain. Guests can sample a special menu and order drinks, while recapturing that old time feeling at Oswego Playhouse's Diamond Daze.