This All-Kid Musical Is Anything But Child’s Play
Directors
Songwriters
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Clark Gesner’s 1967 musical You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown — a sweet and whimsical series of songs and sketches inspired by Charles M. Schulz’s popular Peanuts gang — was originally written to be performed by grown-ups. And yet it was inevitable that this hit show would become a staple of school and youth theatre programs. After all, the characters are all little kids (though they’re grappling with some very adult issues like unrequited love, peer pressure, and alienation). Plus the myriad animated Peanuts TV specials turned them into a beloved and well-recognized family brand.
Unger’s instincts seem to be paying off. As someone who’s frequented the York for more than 20 years, this was the first time I’d seen so many — perhaps any — children in the theatre, both onstage and in the audience. There’s a giddy energy in the room as school-age kids (like my own 10-year-old daughter) sit starstruck watching their peers. That’s not to say grown-ups won’t enjoy this unique interpretation, too. “Charles M. Schulz had this amazing ability to filter his observant, universal philosophy through little-kid voices,” Unger says. “Clark [who passed away in 2002 but had worked with both the York and with Unger] lifted directly from the comics in his songs and scenes. They’re kids speaking to kids on one level, and adults on another at the exact same time. We all go through things — trying times and relationship complications. I guess we’re not satirizing the material as much as other productions might, since we have kids speaking the words.”
Unger believes Charlie Brown is also cathartic for adults. “Telling this story with kids reminds us of our experiences as children,” he says. “Putting this production together I remembered my first crush, my first disappointment, being teased in sixth grade. You don’t lose that stuff. Those are primal moments. We see our history living out on stage.”
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Photos by Carol Rosegg. Top photo: Mavis Simpson-Ernst and Joshua Colley.
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