By Kyla Laquian
Courier Staff Writer
The last Saturday evening this past weekend, I decided to spend my precious evening hours attending the play for You’re a Good Man Charlie Brown, rather than huddling on my plush couch slurping English Breakfast Tea, reading the latest edition of Miss Peregrine’s or eating at restaurants with family or friends, which is what I preferably do on the weekends to wind down. After leaving the play Saturday night however, I was delightfully surprised and left with the unexpected feeling of a newfound appreciation for the small things and small acts of kindness.
Originally written in the 1960s by Clark Gesner as a musical album based off Charles M. Schulz’s beloved comic strip Peanuts, was later translated into a musical performed for amateur theatre and widely successful in broadway adaptations and across the US.
The premise of the JLHS play is that Charlie Brown who is played by James Misa, feels quite lame about himself but still aspires to create a purpose for himself, and helps people despite his own low self-image. Though people repeatedly tell him “he’s a good man” he often questions it, and just as the original, the first act introduces the feelings of Charlie’s friends towards him and several instances in which he particularly feels low about himself, comically including multiple failed attempts to speak to the “little red head girl” who is the eye of his affections and played by Marycris Andrada, failing to giver her a Valentine’s day card accidentally greeting her “Merry Christmas”, a “psychiatry” stand instead of a lemonade stand, in which Charlie must pay 5 cents to receive advice from Lucy Van Pelt played by Emily Baca, about all the things wrong with him; the other characters such as Lucy confesses her dying love for Schroeder played by Bryant Daly, and she goes all out singing and lying down on his piano. Linus Van Pelt, played by Darnyl Felicitas, fantasizes about his blanket which is his most precious object and dances with the “blanket”, the precocious Snoopy played by Tiffany Sam, puts on a dramatic production as if she were in the jungle hunting her kill rather than just being fed dog food. A particular entertaining moment which was one of the best scenes in the play was the “Peter Rabbit Book Report” Scene, which is a musical number involving each of the members rhapsodizing their book report and showcased the unique personalities of each of the characters, and potential of each of the actors. With a lulled, quiet voice but with a hilariously intelligent aura, Linus overly analyzes the sociological and biological aspects of Peter Rabbit’s life, like the intense person Schroeder is, he aggressively describes Peter Rabbit’s life as an action packed adventure, Lucy spews random sentences to make the 100 word limit, and Charlie throughout this time, comes up with nothing.
The second act involves the climactic events in which Charlie learns an important lesson, and accepts what it means to be human and make mistakes, but yet still have the potential to do good things for other people. This includes Charlie attempting to be the leader of the team in a baseball match, and the team losing badly, Sally played by Erika Cospin, her voice ringing throughout the theatre comically condemning people for her D grade in a “coat hanger sculpture”, as well as a failed Glee Club Rehearsal with Lucy and Linus carrying their argument into the practice, and finally after all of the mishaps, Charlie finds teeth marks all over the pencil the little red head girl drops, and realizes his crush is human too and not perfect. Just like himself, he makes a lot of mistakes, and is not perfect. Though extremely imperfect, he is still a “good man Charlie Brown.”
The entire production was fantastic and quite memorable. Though a meager cast of nine, the months’ training and hard work of each of the actors was quite apparent, allowing them to pull through with the performance. Prior to the performance, in which they spent about 3 to four months training, the first couple of months involved vocal training, and the next couple of months involved blocking each scene and running through it from start to finish with the director, Robert Richardson, stopping scenes and offering advice.
Each of the actors added their own flavor to the iconic characters, and though not professionals, the obvious talent and potential shone through in the acting and vocally, always on the right key and hitting the right notes, which is difficult to accomplish when dancing and jumping all over the place. The actor for Charlie actually held a slight resemblance to Bruno Mars, and contributed his unique suave mannerisms to the main character; Emily Baca as Lucy, mentioned a personal connection during her childhood years to her character, as a young girl with more attitude slightly bratty, and channeled her past in relation to her character. Many of the others also clearly had prior experience in choir, and even in R&B singing particularly the little red head girl, Marcie, Sally, and Snoopy which made the musical numbers especially interesting, particularly. The actor for Lucy’s brother Linus, perfectly portrayed a quiet, yet intelligent aura that was quite humorous. And the actor for Schroeder, with baritone vocals, channeled fastidiousness and seemed like an older, scolding father in a young man’s body. Meanwhile, the technical producers and orchestra worked together in perfect sync providing visual and emotional effect.
The entire performance was very polished, and entertaining for people of all ages to watch. It ended with Lucy shaking Charlie’s hand stating “you’re a good man, charlie brown” for the good things he attempted to do despite his shortcomings, which was a simple yet powerful message for all.