Dog Sees God

The other night I went with Suz to see the off-broadway play Dog Sees God. The premise of this parody is to show what would happen if Charlie Brown and the other Peanuts characters grew up. The show stars Eddie Kaye Thomas (you know him as the guy who slept with Stifler's mom in the American Pie movies) as CB (that's Charlie Brown) and Eliza Dushku (Bring It On) as Van's Sister (that's Lucy). The rest of cast is made up of up-and-coming young actors, each of which certainly held their own with their performances of this odd bunch of characters. There is definitely a lot of humor in learning how each character has transformed over the 10 years into their high school personas (I don't want to give any of this away here in case anyone is going - let's just say all of the teen stereotypes are represented).

This is a black comedy (sometimes maybe even a little too dark). At times I felt like I was watching a high school production and at other times experimental theater. Then there were times that it was light and I found myself really enjoying it. After 2 days, I am still not quite sure what to think of it - maybe it was just trying to be too many things at once. I think the script could've been a bit tighter (there were scenes that went on a bit too long and sidetracked) and I'm still not quite sure if there was one big message I was supposed to take away from it. Even though it was a bit heavy handed and preachy at times, in the end the Peanuts-related one-liners did bring a smile to my face.

Would I recommend it? . . . well that depends. I went for $4 (thank you Suz and your theater club) and it was TOTALLY worth that (although most live theater is). Friday nights they do a show at 10pm for $25 - that could be fun. Also, if you go to the box office and show them a picture of a dog (it doesn't have to be your own) you can get 2-for-1 tickets (except for for the Fri. night show) - that might be ok too. But the $65 full-price admission fee is definitely over the top unless you are a huge fan of one of the stars or of Peanuts in general.