A Charlie Brown Christmas: The Music of Vince Guaraldi

Road Less Traveled Productions may not be the first local theatre company to cross your mind when you think of the phrase "wholesome family entertainment". And yet, in their ongoing mission to develop younger generations of theatergoers, the seven-year-old company has recently mounted a very well-received addition to its regular five-play season: A Charlie Brown Christmas: The Music Of Vince Guaraldi, now in its final week. This unique blend of live music and gentle humor presents the beloved jazz album in a festive family-oriented production.

"I noticed last year that Vince Guaraldi's Charlie Brown Christmas was the number one selling Christmas album on iTunes," says RLTP Artistic Director Scott Behrend, who is also directing this production. "The extent to which these great holiday jams have remained embedded in the public consciousness for over forty years really impressed me." 

The Peanuts TV special, A Charlie Brown Christmas, first premiered in 1965, with the soundtrack album soon to follow; the special and the album have been fixtures of the holiday season ever since. "It's never gone out of print or out of style," said Behrend. "This is music that we look forward to hearing every year during the holidays... in fact, it's one of the few defining albums of modern Christmas music."

Behrend says that's a testament not just to the Peanuts brand, but to the sublime compositions and recordings of the Vince Guaraldi Trio: "I thought, 'Wow, this music's just so great, I would love a forty-five or fifty minute experience where I could just go and hear this music live at Christmastime.'"

And so Behrend set out to invent that experience for his audience. "We recreate the entire Vince Guaraldi album onstage with a live jazz trio - Julie Arlotta on piano, Melissa Bender on bass, and Patrick Manella on drums." The Trio is accompanied by a children's choir, comprised of WNY students, and actress Bonnie Jean Taylor (Top image. Triangles, Humpty Dumpty, Grenadine) is on hand to evoke some symbolic memories from the cartoon. "There's a little bit of dance and movement, and some humor. Bonnie's wonderful, and she really gets the kids involved."

The concert will feature such instantly recognizable Guaraldi originals as "Christmas Time is Here" and "Linus & Lucy," as well as traditional standards that were reimagined and re-immortalized on the album, like Guaraldi's transcendent takes "O Tannenbaum!" and  "Hark, The Herald Angels Sing".

"It's a pretty special show... it's certainly never been done in Buffalo before," Behrend says. "Judging from the response already, people are really excited about it - and it's a great change of pace for RLTP to be attracting such a multigenerational audience." This is crucial for Behrend, whose company has worked for years to attract high school and college age students and young adults to its offerings of world premiere modern dramas. "In a strange and neat way, A Charlie Brown Christmas: The Music Of Vince Guaraldi is a really organic evolution of our mission," he says.

"We've got adults in the room enjoying the music and memories from their childhood, but they're also introducing their children to the timeless live jazz compositions of Vince Guaraldi, and to the magic of A Charlie Brown Christmas."

A Charlie Brown Christmas: The Music Of Vince Guaraldi runs ONLY through Sunday, December 13th. Thursday through Saturday @ 7:30 PM and Sunday @ 2:00 PM.

Tickets are $15 for Adults and $10 for Children under 12. Tickets are ONLY available at The Road Less Traveled Theater Box Office or by calling 716.629.3069.

The Road Less Traveled Theater is located at: 639 Main Street, Buffalo, NY 14205 (inside the Market Arcade Film & Arts Centre).