Charlie Brown, Snoopy, and the whole Peanuts gang are like old friends to almost everyone who grew up during the latter half of the 20th century. Me included.
Peanuts was a newspaper comic strip created in 1950 by cartoonist Charles M. Schulz. The very first strip features Shermy and Patty (characters largely unknown today) sitting on a curb. As Charlie Brown approaches, Shermy repeats variations of "Here comes good Ol' Charlie Brown!" until he walks by and disappears from sight. Then finally, in the last panel, Shermy looks out and says "How I hate him!"
Can you imagine any of today's children's books or programs featuring a sentiment like that? Yet over the next fifty years (Schulz ended the Peanuts strip in February 2000 just before passing away), Peanuts became an enormous empire consisting of the strip, animated films, television specials (anyone out there who hasn't seen A Charlie Brown Christmas?), toys, dolls, games, and yes...a Broadway musical.
You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown (music and lyrics by Clark Gesner) debuted Off-Broadway in 1967. It ran four years and was later revived on Broadway in 1999, in a production that I saw and was completely charmed by. It consisted of only six characters (Charlie Brown, Linus, Lucy, Snoopy, Sally, and Schroeder), but it had such warmth, such heart, and such a firm grasp of what made the original comic strip a success. I’d grown up already familiar with a few of the songs (“Happiness” being the most well-known), but once I saw the show I was in love.
When it came time to choose a follow-up to last year’s highly successful The Lion King, I had a few ideas in mind but ultimately this show, a complete left turn from last year’s production, seemed the best fit. As a director, I feel it’s always good to mix it up for our student actors, to give them different material each time they perform, so they get experience performing a range of characters and periods.
Opening up the original show for a large cast proved a challenge, as a script written for 6 characters wouldn't quite work for our 30 middle school actors. But I'm happy to say that I think we've found ways to include everyone and give so many kids the opportunity to participate in a significant way.
I’d like to thank my wonderful collaborators on this production, without whom there would be no musical. Thank you to Ms. Reader for her wonderfully thorough assistance and patience, Mrs. Bianco for teaching the music so beautifully, Mrs. O’Connor for her incredible choreography, Mr. Fry for building the amazing sets, and Mrs. Epprecht for helping us with the lighting and tech elements. I’m also once again so proud to have my former student Ethan Chin providing the sound.
I want to of course thank the wonderful cast and crew - our IEYMS students have been so hard-working and fun-loving throughout this process. And I also want to thank the parents, who have been so supportive of their children's interest in this project. And a special thanks to the parents who came onboard to help us out!
It's such an honor to be building up this musical theatre program here at IEYMS and inspiring a love of performance in our students. I look forward to what comes next!
Please sit back, relax, and enjoy You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown!
--Scott Harris
