A Charlie Brown Christmas recalls the nostalgic half-hour Christmas special, an annual tradition as familiar as sitting on Santa’s lap for generations of children raised on television. It also recalls many kids’ first experiences with the theatre, as its predecessor, You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown, was one of the most frequently produced musicals on the school and community stage.
This professionally produced yet still strikingly simple “Live on Stage” adaptation still thrills young audiences. A musical play, it follows the TV special almost to the letter, adding a sing-along at the end featuring an array of traditional Christmas carols and one Hanukkah tune.
When Charles M. Schulz adapted his legendary comic strip into an animated special. He wanted to focus on “what Christmas is all about,” essentially a celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ. Regarded as one of the most influential cartoonists of all time and raised Lutheran, Schulz often reflected religious themes in his work. This comes out completely undisguised in the play’s climax; here Linus van Pelt (Kevin Dort) quotes the King James Version of the Bible (slightly amended here for updated political correctness).
A good deal of the carols sung at the end of this play are religious as well, but the main point of this story is to criticize the commercialization of the holidays, always an ironic effort with hugely successful commercial characters, like the Peanuts.
What this play offers that the TV special doesn’t is a live experience with lively dancing and an acrobatic actor playing Snoopy (Yochai Greenfeld) the dog (this guy really steals the show) and a vigorous, talented cast filling in the other roles.
There’s not a lot of diversity in the casting; the one black character in the Peanuts gang, Franklin, doesn’t have a role here. (The brownest member of the cast is Nico DiPrimio, the “Male Swing” and his energy, dancing and physical abilities are on par with Greenfeld’s.)
The one original song added to the show about a Christmas tree is nothing to write home about, but the production, directed by Jim Milan and featuring Jack Flatley, Brianna Barnes, and Ari Raskin, is solid, and it’s as good as any version of this show you’re going to see.
(The show has concluded its run)
