Christmas is a special time of year—families gather together, gifts are exchanged, and trees finally have a purpose. Celebrate the season with this GrouponLive deal.

The Deal

• $12 for one ticket to see It's a Wonderful Life (up to $21.50 value)
• Where: Brown County Playhouse
• Section: general admission
• Door time: 30 minutes before showtime
Ticket values include all fees.

It's a Wonderful Life

Originally conceived by Chicago's American Theater Company, It's A Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play reimagines the Jimmy Stewart holiday classic as an old-timey broadcast streaming into living rooms around the country. The story centers around George Bailey, a man who has sacrificed dreams of traveling the world to help the people around him—especially his brother and the impoverished citizens of the town. On Christmas Eve, facing the potential bankruptcy of his Building and Loan company—an event George believes would confirm he's wasted his life—he plans to jump off a bridge to his death. But before he can, his guardian angel, Clarence, stops him and shows him the lives he's touched and how different his town would be had he never been born.

Transforming the stage into a radio studio, a small ensemble of actors brings the story to life by portraying dozens of characters and mimicking the sounds of blowing wind, splashing water, and heart's melting. The resulting show loses none of the original's tenderness, with the Chicago Tribune declaring it "a well-loved tale told with style, charm and a heart so big it could burst the ribcages of the harshest Grinch."

Brown County Playhouse

As humble beginnings go, it's hard to top Brown County Playhouse. It started in 1949 as a straw-hat theater in an open-air barn, with a canvas tent hanging over the seats. When a neighboring potter's kiln burned holes in that tent, the owners replaced it with a tin roof. When they wanted to put on four plays during the summer season, the scorching heat forced them to cut it down to three. And until 1965, patrons had to hike across the street to powder their noses. Yet in 1977, the Brown County Playhouse grew out of its rustic pants when a brand-new theater was built, giving the area's center for family plays, live music, and festivals a permanent home. Today, the Brown County Playhouse is where the county's music awards take place, where the Big Woods Homegrown Concert series presents the best in local talent, and where digital projection and Dolby surround sound amplify first- and second-run feature films.