The Delight of Family Friendly Performances: “A Charlie Brown Christmas – LIVE!” at the San Francisco Symphony (December 2025)

By Jill Randall

Even before becoming a parent, I have always been curious about the idea of “family friendly performances” beyond the Nutcracker experience. In the late 90s in Salt Lake City while in college, the Rose Wagner Performing Arts Center was just built and started a series called Ring Around the Rose. At that same time, I also got to see the Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company’s family productions as well. I loved the intersection of professional artistry and young audiences, and I wanted to explore the ideas of intergenerational experiences, intergenerational casts, and professional artists working on and in the productions. 

Moving to the Bay Area, I then learned about ODC’s Velveteen Rabbit, which just celebrated its 39th anniversary of the production! 

Plus, about 10 years ago in an inspiring conversation with Victor Anderson, the co-founder of Shawl-Anderson Dance Center, he shared with me about Doris Humphrey’s group the Merry-Go-Rounders. To hear that this modern dance icon also dabbled in work for children, I still held onto this idea and aspired to either make or curate a family friendly series in the future. 

Clearly, my curiosity about family friendly performances has been existing for many years!

“A Charlie Brown Christmas – LIVE!” 

On Monday, December 22nd, I got to experience the playful “A Charlie Brown Christmas – LIVE!” at the San Francisco Symphony. I have been in the Bay Area for 25+ years now, and that Monday was the first time at the symphony. This iconic organization has been going for over 100 years now! Just incredible. 

I loved soaking in the whole experience of the 2pm matinee – from the decorated trees in the lobby to seeing who was coming to the show (families? adults?), to sitting among 2,700 other audience members. 

In 2025, the symphony experience is now multidimensional. Yes, we start with the incredible symphony, which probably had about 50 musicians. Then above them was seated the San Francisco Symphony Chorus, with probably another 50 artists. What a gift of sound.

The stage included a simple holiday lighting design with wreaths, greenery, and large “icicle” lights that changed colors throughout the production. Plus, a large rectangular screen was suspended above the symphony. Clips of “A Charlie Brown Christmas” and other Charlie Brown related pieces played. 

The New Act 1 – “Peanuts Symphony”

This year the Symphony offered an expanded version of the production with a new Act 1. It was a playlist of nine Vince Guaraldi songs from the Charlie Brown cartoons over the years. Natasha Adorlee, who has performed in the Symphony’s “A Charlie Brown Christmas” production for nearly 10 years as Snoopy, took on additional roles as choreographer and creative producer for the new section.

I appreciated the whimsy and physicality, bringing to life in real-time the ideas explored in these vintage cartoons, and also an incredible expression of the music performed right behind the dancers. The choreography offered fun variety – from small ensemble vignettes, to duets, to solos. Most of the dancers were professional artists/adults, with a few young dancers cast for the production as well. Jessie Rice was a standout young dancer performing the solo of Woodstock. She confidently embodied Adorlee’s choreography with quick-paced turns, gestures, and floorwork. Rice’s sense of musicality and dynamics was impressive.

As a fellow dancer, I appreciated the creative puzzle Adorlee was tasked with solving for the new Act 1. This puzzle included a relatively small amount of space in front of the symphony (2 panels of marley) and the two options for exits off the stage. I also felt a deep respect within her work – to add onto a longstanding production with the original choreography of Liza Gennaro for “A Charlie Brown Christmas” (“Act 2”), and what it means to add dancing to an already full experience with symphony and chorus. 

It was truly the choreography of joyful embodiment. Guaraldi’s music just makes you want to swing, sway, and twirl. The choreography offered a nice range, from punctuated gestures and poses, to big lifts of a dancer up in the air, to energetic skipping, leaping, ponying, and spinning. 

The Longstanding Act 2 

For 10 years, the Symphony has performed “A Charlie Brown Christmas – LIVE!”, with original choreography by Broadway artist Liza Gennaro. The choreography is crisp, sharp…the real-time representation of story and characters. There is an added literalness with Act 2: the costumes with direct references to the cartoons (such as the markings on Charlie Brown’s shirt), four narrators on stage, and “A Charlie Brown Christmas” projected on the big screen.

I especially loved the duet of Charlie and Linus, talking about trying to find a tree, with big gestures and expressive upper body movement. (Ah, to dance and convey to the top of the seats is a task!) And, the dancing “trees” were delightful in costume (swing style dresses with hoop boning) and equally in the tree-choreo including two dancers on pointe. Plus, Natasha Adorlee’s portrayal of Snoopy was pure joy, capturing what I think of when I think about the character Snoopy – pony steps, side tilts, and soaring spins.

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Looking at the whole production with Acts 1 and 2, the dancing is key to the intergenerational experience – providing “something for everyone” to engage with. The audience gets to see, hear, feel, and imagine. Seeing both Acts 1 and 2 – and the choreography of Adorlee and Gennaro together – we get to play with story and abstraction, narration and inspiration. Even today, I can easily recall a Guaraldi tune and a dancer being lifted and spun around, in my mind. Thank you for sharing and offering joy and delight, and for creating artful memories. 

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