This obscure musical (based on the Peanuts comic strips of Charles M Schulz) with book, music and lyrics by Clark Gesner, has set up camp at the Tabard Theatre in Chiswick this autumn. Following a day in the life of Charlie Brown, he is joined by all the famous comic strip characters: Shroeder, Lucy, Linus, Sally and, of course, everyone’s favourite dog, Snoopy. The set, by Simon Wells, is as bright and vibrant as one would expect from a cartoon, which only assists the wonderfully accurate costumes in enabling the comic strips to become a reality.
I have a close affinity with this piece from taking the title role at university, and it isa perfect showcase of musical theatre and an evening of light-hearted fun. The very talented cast, whose credits are very impressive for this tiny pub theatre space, clearly have a lot of fun with their performance where they play out characters of five year olds dealing with themes of love, rejection and psychiatric help.
The ensemble work very well together and sing through some tough vocals: as an example, the close to Act One, ‘The Book Report’ is an incredibly complicated number with each of the six performers having a different melody line and completely different verse. Performing together and pulling this particular number off left the audience open mouthed and amazed at what they had just witnessed. If you haven’t got that this is a fun piece by now you should really see a doctor for a dose of humour.
Snoopy, played by Mark Anderson, was performed just right. Anderson’s comic timing is wonderfully dry and hecreates the famous dog perfectly. A difficult part to play, he quickly becomes the one character that the audience can directly sympathise with when what is being played out onstage is actually a little bit bizarre.
The lisping Linus by Adam Ellis is delightful, and upon adjusting to hearing his faux lisp in this role the intellectual four year old has some great one liners. Ellis excels in a wonderfully energetic rendition of ‘My Blanket and Me’, which included a host of acrobatics on the small stage.
But naturally, and with any production of Charlie Brown whether it be a village hall production or the Off Broadway cast of 1999 with Kristen Chenoweth, cast the part of Sally Brown correctly and she will inevitably steal the show. Hayley Gallivan is no exception to this rule and as well as looking perfect in her costume, she really commits to the role of Charlie Brown’s younger sister who spends most of her days in search of a philosophy that suits her. Gallivan’s vocals in the Act tTwo opener are superb and you can’t help but be completely engaged by her performance.
I would urge anyone looking for something different in musical theatre to go and see You’re a Good Man Charlie Brown, particularly as this production has a whole host of talent under the direction of Anthony Drewe, and is a very pleasing evening.
You’re A Good Man, Charlie Brown is playing at the Tabard Theatre until 30th October. For more information and to buy tickets see the Tabard Theatre website.
