One of my favorite holiday traditions is watching the classic 1965 television special A Charlie Brown Christmas based on the Peanuts comics by Charles M. Schulz. Even before we had kids, my husband and I made time for a viewing of this touching and humorous animated show about the Peanuts gang exploring the “true meaning” of the holiday. Fortunately our five year-old son also seems to love it now, though at this point I suspect it is more for the slapstick humor than the commentary on the commercialism of Christmas and the wonderful jazz score by Vince Guaraldi…but I can only hope that the subtle magic of the show will grow with him.
So as you can imagine, we were thrilled to be offered tickets to the sneak peak of the new live adaptation A Charlie Brown Christmas Live On Stage presented by On Stage at the Kingsborough last weekend. I’ve been wanting to bring my son to more live theater and this surprisingly professional show was the perfect opportunity to share that experience with him. From the impressive production to the talented performers, it felt a lot more like a professional Broadway production than we were expecting.
The live music and dancing were particularly great and I loved how much they embraced (and even stretched out) non-verbal moments of the original show in between dialogue, though I do think it was perhaps a little longer than it needed to be. (The original TV special is around 20 minutes long; we were surprised to find out that this live adaptation was 90 minutes including an intermission.) To create a full-length theatrical experience, they added more musical numbers including their full “Christmas Show” of holiday classics performed by the Peanuts gang after the conclusion of the original story.
They did a great job of honoring the spirit of the original show, though it is very hard – maybe impossible – to replicate the true magic of this little animated show on stage with human beings. A lot of the dry humor and satire simply didn’t translate into this enthusiastic performance, while the professional quality and padding of the show (as well as the well-stocked Peanuts merchandise table outside) left me with the nagging question: was this the commercialization of A Charlie Brown Christmas? But I am probably over-thinking the experience. After all, even the original TV special was commissioned and sponsored by The Coca-Cola Company.
Overall, A Charlie Brown Christmas Live was a wonderful, heart-warming Christmas show for families to enjoy together this holiday season. I particularly recommend it for anyone who loves Peanuts and live Christmas music. They even got the audience involved in singing along with classic Christmas songs at the end, and gave kids a chance to meet their favorite Peanuts characters for autographs after the show.
Presented by On Stage at the Kingsborough as part of the 2019-2020 season’s family series (up next: Charlotte’s Web on January 26th and The New Shanghai Circus on April 19th), A Charlie Brown Christmas Live on Stage was a sneak peak of the production’s upcoming North American Tour produced by Gershwin Entertainment. You can see the schedule of performances and buy tickets for the touring show here.
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By Margel Nusbaumer