{"id":60182,"date":"2025-11-25T14:13:24","date_gmt":"2025-11-25T14:13:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/60182\/"},"modified":"2025-11-25T14:13:24","modified_gmt":"2025-11-25T14:13:24","slug":"at-orlando-family-stage-charlie-brown-makes-christmas-twice-as-bright","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/60182\/","title":{"rendered":"At Orlando Family Stage, Charlie Brown makes Christmas twice as bright"},"content":{"rendered":"

You couldn\u2019t blame the leaders of Orlando Family Stage<\/a> if they kicked up their heels and threw back their heads with a howl to join Snoopy in the cartoon beagle\u2019s flamboyantly happy dance.<\/p>\n

The theater, which specializes in productions for young audiences and their families, has created not one but two productions of \u201cA Charlie Brown Christmas\u201d this year \u2014 one for its own stage in Loch Haven Park, north of downtown, and one that has embarked on a national tour.<\/p>\n

In a year when government funding for arts nonprofits has taken a hit<\/a>, the dual revenue stream from good ol\u2019 Charlie Brown is like, well, a Christmas miracle.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is not an easy time, so to be able to find ways to supplement and complement funding sources, that\u2019s what we have to do. It\u2019s essential for us,\u201d said Orlando Family Stage artistic director Jeffrey Revels. \u201cIt\u2019s extremely important, especially with the growth potential.\u201d<\/p>\n

Orlando Family Stage first partnered with Gershwin Entertainment Corp.<\/a> last year to present an adaptation of the beloved TV special<\/a> in which Charles M. Schulz\u2019s preternaturally wise Peanuts gang<\/a> learns the true meaning of Christmas.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was the best-selling show financially for us of all time,\u201d said Revels. \u201cAnd we are on pace to beat that this year.\u201d<\/p>\n

The touring production also did well, so Orlando Family Stage upped its involvement in that endeavor.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe 100% have stepped up as a producer,\u201d Revels said. Beyond casting the show \u2014 11 actors for the local production and 11 more for the tour \u2014 and rehearsing both casts here, this year Orlando Family Stage also took on increased responsibility for costume and prop maintenance for the touring show.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe built extra sad little Charlie Brown trees,\u201d in case a mishap damages one on the road, Revels gave as an example. Orlando Family Stage also created multiple Snoopy costumes to make it easier to keep up with laundry while on tour. The theater refreshed the sets, which it designed and created in 2024.<\/p>\n

Orlando Family Stage is also helping theaters across the country market the show when possible. The tour stops at such cities as Cincinnati; Brooklyn, New York; Washington, D.C.; Denver; Los Angeles and Las Vegas.<\/p>\n

Revels hopes the success of \u201cA Charlie Brown Christmas\u201d will lead to future partnerships with Gershwin Entertainment \u2014 and additional revenue streams.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want this to be a pilot for other work we can create together,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u2018Gilded Age\u2019 star Den\u00e9e Benton will headline Orlando Shakes gala<\/a><\/p>\n

For those who saw the show last year, Revels has tweaked some elements, most notably the featured music. He replaced sacred music sung before Linus reads the Nativity story to the other children with secular holiday songs \u2014 emphasizing that the kids don\u2019t grasp the meaning of Christmas until philosophical Linus has his biblical moment in the spotlight.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just felt like we weren\u2019t setting up Linus\u2019s big moment as we should,\u201d Revels said. Now, singing \u201cJoy to the World\u201d and more verses of \u201cHark the Herald Angels Sing\u201d after the telling of the Christmas story shows that \u201cthe kids realize what Christmas is all about.\u201d<\/p>\n

Revels said this year\u2019s audience so far is a mix of returning patrons and newbies. He\u2019s especially pleased to see the show attract theatergoers of all ages.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is truly multigenerational theater,\u201d he said. \u201cParents and grandparents get to see the children experience the story they love.\u201d<\/p>\n

He\u2019s also happy to be staging the show in a momentous year for the Peanuts, which debuted as a newspaper comic strip on Oct. 2, 1950. Not only is it the 75th anniversary of the franchise, but it is the 60th anniversary of the televised cartoon that inspired the stage show. \u201cA Charlie Brown Christmas\u201d premiered on CBS-TV on Dec. 9, 1965 \u2014 cementing the Peanuts\u2019 place in American pop culture for generations.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe get to be, in a small way, a steward of that legacy,\u201d Revels said. \u201cIt\u2019s quite an honor. I don\u2019t take that lightly at all.\u201d<\/p>\n

Follow me at facebook.com\/matthew.j.palm<\/a> or email me at mpalm@orlandosentinel.com<\/a>. Find more entertainment news and reviews at\u00a0orlandosentinel.com\/entertainment<\/a>\u00a0or sign up to receive our\u00a0weekly\u00a0emailed Entertainment newsletter<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u2018A Charlie Brown Christmas\u2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"You couldn\u2019t blame the leaders of Orlando Family Stage if they kicked up their heels and threw back…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":55807,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[36500,36499,1191,36501,139,20143,141,140],"class_list":["post-60182","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-a-charlie-brown-christmas","tag-charlie-brown","tag-christmas","tag-jeffrey-revels","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-family-stage","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60182","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=60182"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60182\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/55807"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60182"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60182"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60182"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}