Review-You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown-ACT
5-10-13
By: Michael Dorsher
I’m your typical, passive, Peanuts enthusiast. When I sought out the Comics section of the Sunday paper, its above-the-fold positioning guaranteed a read. Viewings of the Great Pumpkin and Christmas specials book-ended the fourth quarter holiday season of childhood days. Knott’s Berry Farms optioned the Charles Schultz characters as its photogenic park mascots, and Joe Cool continues to be an image stamped on every household item from t-shirts to toilet brush holders: a Che Guevara face for middle-of-the-roaders. It’s from this perspective that I arrived at the Friday night showing of You’re A Good Man, Charlie Brown.
“Have you seen it before?” a fellow theater-goer asked as I took my seat.
“Nope”
“You haven’t lived until you’ve heard the songs! Your whole life up until tonight will be total and utter hogwash once you’ve experienced it.”
“Won’t it just be better? I don’t think my life prior to tonight would be affected.”
“Well… You’ll see.”
The lights dimmed, and the show began.
For those who have spent a fair bit of time in the Peanuts comic strip, You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown brings you back to the Sunday funny pages from the get-go. The black box theater is speckled with moments of color, with Snoopy’s iconic red house holding prominence in center stage, and the set pieces are unmistakably Schultz: the shaky lines reminiscent of childhood pencil work, done by a confident yet unpracticed hand. There is a youthful energy about the set, which is instantly likeable.
Two expectations were set in my mind by the ambience on stage. Firstly, I’m expecting color – LOADS of color: 64 Crayolas, at a minimum. Secondly, drum kit and keyboard signal live music. I’m finicky about that: my expectations are high for the accompaniment. I’m pleased to say they were met on both counts.
We’re introduced to our characters prominently in color before we ever see them on stage. When they do make it out, the characters are the spitting image of their comic strip counterparts. Lucy in the royal blue dress; Linus’ baby blue blanket; Schroeder’s piano; Peppermint Patty’s freckled sportiness; Pig Pen’s aura of dirt; Sally’s goldilocked aloofness; Charlie Brown’s yellow with black stripe. Their costumes bring in the vibrant colors needed to make them believable and the actors do a great job brining them to life.
Jejie Esguerra’s Charlie Brown balances the contrast one needs in the central character. He brings us through the emotional range of the protagonist with ease. We hope with him as his kite flies higher, we root for him as he takes on the rival baseball team, and we feel for him as he muses on the loneliness of lunchtime. Jejie holds a child like comic strip voice well, dropping it only to deliver in the musical numbers.
Fiona Gourlay-Grant plays a great foil to Jejie’s Brown. Lucy’s boisterous, manipulative, self-serving nature is dominant without being overdone. We love to see her bested by the rest of the gang, who don’t care much for her playground politicking but will happily be led by her when she hold the reins.
Schroeder, Lucy’s love interest, is more prominent than I’ve ever noticed in previous Peanuts works. Joms Ortega has no problem displaying his musical chops in the role and his acting never fails to hold the single-minded dedication of the pianist.
Linus enters as our voice of reason, saddled proudly by his bright blue blanket. Quiet and thoughtful, when he opens his mouth: the audience is all ears. Jai Ignacio does not disappoint us here, delivering memorable performances throughout. It’s when he and his sister Lucy are paired on stage that Jai’s acting strength is best on display.
Sally plays the youngest of the gang, and Amy-Louise Cannon does a great job bringing her to life on stage. Her conversation with the art teacher with regards to her coat-hanger project is hilarious, without defying good logic, and her wanton determination bring us back to the bliss of youthful ignorance. Where laughs are earned, Amy-Louise is earning them.
Violet, Franklin, Charlotte Braun, Pig Pen, Frieda and Peppermint Patty combine for the ensemble around our main players. If you’re not familiar with who these characters are from the strip, do not worry. It won’t matter much. The actors play the roles with excited energy and shine in the musical numbers, bringing in the color and energy needed – but individually the characters could be almost anyone from the world of Charles Schulz. There’s one stand-out from the ensemble mix, which is unmistakably Tien Chong. It may be her ACT debut, but her mannerisms personify the playground personas I recall as a kid in a way that makes it hard not to watch her and impossible not to enjoy.
For the music throughout the show, I was extremely impressed. Firstly, the live music conducted by Jacqueline Gourlay-Grant was flawlessly done in my opinion. It’s one thing to play behind the scene and join the musical numbers; what impressed me was how tight the band was with the action on stage. When a slug was thrown, the drums brought it to life. The piano and bass work harks back to the animated Peanuts specials and Jacqueline keeps a constant eye both on the stage work and the musicians for a wonderful execution.
Production wise, I was pleased. Set design, as mentioned before, was unmistakably Schulz in style and looked great from the seats. From the school bus to the dog house to kite to Lucy’s Psychiatrist Booth 5 Cents – we’re brought into the comic strip. The delivery of the action throughout adds to this. The action across the day is delivered in vignettes which could be delivered in a 3 frame strip. The musical numbers depart from this, but every musical requires a suspension of disbelief: people just don’t break into song and dance around my daily life all that much.
When the world does break into song and dance, it works. The choreography was unobjectionable, which for me says it's done well. The actors hit their marks, and if they missed a step or were not in perfect unison on their hand-wavings it did not stand out as awkward. They’re playing 3-5 year olds: 3-5 year olds don’t dance in perfect unison. Any awkwardness helps the world they create on stage. Were there a few notes off key? Perhaps – but they don’t stand out. If your initial thought is “I like musicals on Broadway, but community theater productions never cut it for my taste” – shut up and go see this one. You may leave changing your tune.
There were only three challenge areas for me in this production.
One was in the sound. Predominantly strong throughout; however, there were times where the mic may not have been unmuted at the right moment for the right character and you’re hearing them from the stage rather than over the speakers. The small room doesn’t make this ruin the show, but it’s something that will likely be tightened up by the second night.
Second area was the stagehands. I felt I saw them a bit too much. As the second half opened, there were still strewn pages from the finale of the first act on stage. I was looking to see if they’d get leveraged again, but were cleaned up after the first scene of the act. Whether the stage manager wasn’t sending them out on time, or they were new to the craft, it’s an important part of getting the distractions removed so the audience is focused on what we need to be.
Finally, and what everyone’s likely wondering about if you’ve gotten about this far, is Snoopy. Michael Charles Rogers puts in a lot of effort, and Snoopy gets a lot of time alone to control the stage. For me, it doesn’t fit my vision of Snoopy. It’s a tough situation, because it’s the most iconic image from the Peanuts series. I don’t blame Michael for letting me down, as he displays good range – I would more likely chalk that up to Clark Gesner who wrote the play. My Snoopy doesn’t speak. He interacts, he mimes, and his power as a character comes from the lack of words he uses. I kept trying to get into a talking, singing, dancing Snoopy, but it was tough for me. That’s where my disbelief had a hard time budging. If he had a voice over and mime, maybe that would've worked. Snoopy could very well work for a lot of other audience, but it was a tough sell for me.
All in all, you’ve got a lot of entertainment options this weekend. Was my life changed beyond all belief from the production? No. Was I transported back to a day and age oft forgotten in the unnecessarily busy world of Hong Kong? Absolutely. You’re A Good Man, Charlie Brown can take you places you don’t get to see everyday. It’s definitely worth the effort.
You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown is playing through October 12th at the HK Rep Blackbox in Sheung Wan. For more information, click here.
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