YOU'RE A GOOD MAN, CHARLIE BROWN
YOU’RE A GOOD MAN, CHARLIE BROWN, Hayes Theatre Co at the Hayes Theatre, 5-30 July 2016. Photography by Noni Carroll; above - Sheridan Harbridge and Mike Whalley; right: Andy Dexterity
First staged off-Broadway in 1967, this delicious show won the Outer Critics Circle Award for Best Production in that year and, on a Broadway revival in 1999, won the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Revival of a Musical. This production, deftly directed by Shaun Rennie, with musical direction by the always wondrous Michael Tyack, demonstrates exactly why it’s not only been a winner but also often restaged.
Based on the legendary Peanuts comic strip characters created by Charles M Schulz, the musical’s book, music and lyrics are by Clark Gesner, with Michael Mayer and Andrew Lippa. The result is a deceptively simple and utterly charming bag of lollies.
It’s now almost two decades since the last Peanuts strip – published the day after Schulz died. Back then the characters and their daily lives of philosophy, Beethoven, baseball and (for the beagle) relentless battles against the Red Baron were a fixture in thousands of newspapers worldwide. So this show is a trip down memory lane for fans and a new experience for a younger audience (of adults and kids).
The show and its wonderful cast bring the characters to life – authentically for those who know and love them and vividly and brilliantly for those who don’t. Their universality has always been a great appeal, despite the down-home Americana of their preoccupations and surrounds.
Mike Whalley is Everyboy as the eternal loser-hero Charlie Brown, who yearns for love and achievement while epitomising the sweet ordinariness of dreamy childhood. Andy Dexterity as his beloved dog Snoopy (and also the show’s very good choreographer) is occasionally sharp rather than the exasperated Beagle of the strip but is crucially more pooch than putz.
As someone who as a child closely (alarmingly?) identified with the ferocious Lucy van Pelt, it’s a joy to report that Sheridan Harbridge is the perfect Lucy: funny, cute, clever and crabby. Also perfect is Ben Gerrard as Lucy’s hapless younger brother Linus, the neurotic boy who first brought the idea of a security blanket to the wider world.
Nat Jobe is Schroeder – Beethoven devotee, and though he is too wrapped up in his piano to notice, Lucy’s love interest and Charlie Brown’s second-best friend. And last but never least, Laura Murphy is Sally Brown, Charlie’s younger smarter sister and perpetually carrying a torch for Linus, who also doesn't notice.
Rather than a narrative line with plot, the show is constructed in something like a series of comic strips – separate vignettes and scenes that foreground each of the characters or an incident – and this should make it easy for the unfamiliar to quickly latch on to the kids and the Beagle. It certainly highlights the individual preoccupations and characters with vivid clarity.
Set and costume designer Georgia Hopkins has wisely left the Hayes stage bare, aside from Snoopy’s unmistakeable red kennel and the kind of old sheet-style drapes that make up any kid’s make believe palace/dungeon/cave/submarine/whatever. She has also wittily reproduced the kids’ clothes and unique looks seemingly without even trying.
Lighting designer Hugh Hamilton and sound designer Jeremy Silver add their skills to the look and sound. Hamilton helps the action along with funny and judicious spotlighting, while Silver’s overall sound – with the band invisible behind the drapes – is beautifully balanced between cast, musicians and audience.
The show is the first from the Hayes company that’s aimed at a youthful audience and the clever and best thing about it, among many clever and best things, is that it’s perfectly excellent for children of all ages – from about 6 to 96.
If you’re a fan of the Peanuts strip you’ll love its authenticity and heart. If you love musical theatre, you’ll appreciate the droll score with its nod to Beethoven and 50s popular show tunes. If you’re coming to Peanuts for the first time I’m betting you’ll be enchanted by these brilliant little people and want to investigate further (check out www.peanuts.com).
Whatever age you or your children think you are – You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown will make you feel even better about life. Recommended.
