Opening Week of “You’re a Good Man Charlie Brown” a Success!

The Plymouth State Theatre and Music Theatre Company has given the phrase “comic relief” elevated meaning with its production of “You’re a Good Man Charlie Brown.” PSU’s version of the Clark Gesner musical, inspired and based on the popular Charles Schultz comic “Peanuts,” began its run on September 30 in the Silver Cultural Art Center’s Studio Theater. The “black box” style studio theater suited the show well, considering the scant amount of scenery. Scenic designer Matt Kizer chose a minimalist approach, the stage dominated by a large projection screen centered toward the back of the theater. The bold, definitive colors and heavy-handed black outlining of the constantly changing scenes projected onto the screen throughout the show could have been swiped from a Charles Schultz comic. The same can be said for the few, but well-chosen set pieces. Snoopy’s vivid red doghouse and Lucy’s “Psychiatric Help – 5 cents” booth would have stood up to the scrutiny of even the most dedicated Peanuts fans. The larger-than-life design incorporated into all of the pieces, which also included Schroeder’s classic white piano, contributed to the show’s comical effect. With a visually sparse stage setup and virtually no plot linearity, the production relied heavily on the performances of the actors. Under the direction of PSU Theater Professor Heather Elise Hamilton, they collectively proved equal to the challenge. The musical is a cabaret of Peanuts moments, making character development crucial. Costume designer Angela Pitrone, working within the creative boundaries drawn by the characters’ traditional attire, was instrumental in transforming the actors into virtual cartoons. The effectiveness of the costuming lay in its simplicity, each ensemble fashioned primarily from fleece, with black marker used for accents such as polka dots and stripes. Costuming aside, the performances of the six-person cast brought the comic strip off the page. Senior Acting major John Phipps lead the cast in the title role of Charlie Brown. In the past, Phipps has portrayed characters such as The Beadle in the macabre musical “Sweeney Todd,” and Enoch Snow in the more lighthearted classic “Carousel.” His solid performance in the purely comical role of Charlie Brown reinforces his versatility. Never breaking character, Phipps captured the bumbling, naïve, and always well-intentioned manner of Charlie Brown to near perfection, pacing the floor as he got increasingly flustered, and blushing at the sight of “The Little Red Haired Girl.” Complementing Phipps’ Charlie Brown was Sarah Comtois’s portrayal of the sharp, cynical Lucy Van Pelt. The senior Musical Theatre Performance major settled easily into the role of Charlie Brown’s domineering counterpart, in one scene claiming “I’ll work and I’ll work until I’m very rich. And then I’ll buy myself a queendom!” Senior Lyndsay Freeman performed potently as the easily excitable and sometimes mildly vexing Sally Brown, although her portrayal bore little resemblance to the popular Peanuts character. During scenes, such as one in which she screams Schroeder off stage, her mannerisms seemed to mirror, and even rival those of Comtois’s Lucy. Freeman did showcase her vocal talent in the comical number “My New Philosophy,” with the swingy, easy voice of a jazz performer. In perhaps the show’s most challenging role, Ken Quiricone ensnared the audience as Snoopy. Quiricone adopted the canine mannerisms to a tee, often dropping down to his knees and at one point engaging in a dynamic rabbit hunt with Freeman’s Sally. Revealing a comical side not often seen in his previous PSU performances, Quiricone artfully navigated a myriad of punchy one-liners and shifted seamlessly from pleasant to maniacal and back in his first solo number, “Snoopy.” Isaac Mishkit endeared the audience as Linus Van Pelt, making his initial entrance sucking his thumb, with blue security blanket in tow. Despite brief lapses in character, Mishkit’s performance was arguably the most animated. Owning one of the strongest vocal performances of the show in “My Blanket and Me,” Mishkit’s Linus garnered the sympathy of the audience at the end of the number by bursting into appropriately overdone tears at the prospect of leaving behind his beloved blanket. Chris Candage’s Schroeder seemed to occasionally get lost in the show’s buoyancy, but his witty refusals of Lucy’s advances were worthy of the crowd’s chuckles, and he wore the spotlight well in one of the show’s sprightlier numbers, “Beethoven Day.” Collectively, the cast delivered a warm and often hilarious production, engaging the audience with rollicking dance numbers and quick-witted exchanges. Their cohesion was notably displayed through numbers such as “Suppertime,” in which the cast danced with larger-than-life replicas of Snoopy’s food dish, and of course the show’s tender final number, “Happiness.” The honest simplicity of the production was like the pleasure of a cup of hot chocolate, providing a little warmth to carry from the theater into the mid-autumn evening. It was a good show, Charlie Brown.