It's the kind of thing that can shoot your eye out: the idea of taking one of America's favorite Christmas movies and turning it into a stage play. But that's just what Milwaukee's First Stage Children's Theater will do in its adaptation of "A Christmas Story" at the Marcus Center. This may seem to be treading dangerous ground, kind of like running down the alley where the bullies lurk. But the First Stage staff is proceeding fearlessly, confident that Jean Shepherd's work - so successful in books, lectures and films - will translate happily onto the stage. Playwright Philip Grecian worked with Shepherd on the theatrical adaptation for years, says First Stage artistic director Jeff Frank, "and he got Jean's approval on the project. The adaptation really captures the heart of the movie." Part of that heart, says Kevin Gonring, one of the actors who plays Young Ralphie, is that the feelings and situations strike such a familiar note no matter what the medium. "It's the ideal Christmas. The magic is that it's what people really go through at Christmas and that stays with the story." Theatergoers will find that one of the movie's elements has been expanded to become the major difference between the film and the First Stage production. Frank notes that "Shepherd was adamant about keeping the narrative voice in and that's what makes the play so strong." In the play, The Narrator, Ralphie as an adult, appears onstage most of the time. Veteran actor Bo Johnson takes on that golden role. Says Johnson: "I'm on stage almost 100 percent of the time, and I have about 50 percent of the lines. In some ways, it's new. It's different to see the person. But it's the same voice, the voice of Ralph looking back from an older age, as far as the narrator in the movie. Now you have a body to go with it." "A Christmas Story" fans will find other differences between the play and the movie. Without giving away any plot secrets, it can be said that the play shows Ralphie starting to grow up. "The stage version takes a different focus, less about materialism and more sentimental about the passages of boyhood," Johnson says. Some audience members may note that their favorite movie scenes are missing from the play. Says Frank: "Everybody has their favorite movie moment. In 75 minutes, we can't include them all in the play." But in some ways, the First Stage production is more true to Shepherd's original work than the movie version turned out to be. The play takes place in 1938, the year Shepherd himself places his story. The film setting is much more ambiguous - arguably anywhere from 1940 to the early '50s. A Depression-era setting posed some challenges for the First Stage staff. According to wardrobe supervisor Abbie Heid, "We really had to do a lot of research into what clothing actually did exist at the time. We learned nylons were just invented then and sometimes women just drew the seam line down the back of their legs to pretend to be wearing stockings. A lot of the challenge was finding clothes for all the kids - 34 kids with the two casts. There was a lot of running around to Goodwill. We also took adult size clothing and cut it down to make it fit a child." But through all difficulties, the First Stage staff was buoyed by the idea that the core of Shepherd's work holds true no matter what time it's set in. Says Frank: "There is this universality. Everyone is like Ralphie, where there was something at one point in time we really, really wanted. You can get caught up in the angst of that. But that's not as important as the fact that the family was together. In the final accounting, that's what its all about. In the center of the piece is this really wonderful heart."