Hi everyone! I was wondering about something. I'm on the play reading committee at my theater and we are looking at shows for 2010 right now. It's the year we do a musical, so I am working on getting some suggestions for that right now. I came across You're A Good Man, Charlie Brown and absolutely love it! I remember watching the cartoon version when I was a kid (over and over and over!) and am delighted to see that the original songs that I loved are still in it.

Anyway, our audience is made up of adults, almost entirely. Most of our shows are not family friendly, in fact, three out of our four plays this year will carry a Mature rating due to language, violence, and adult content.

I was wondering what the audience reaction normally is to Charlie Brown, especially if it's an adult audience. Of course, these adults will probably bring their children, which would be wonderful! So have any of you done this show? If so, how have the adults in your audience enjoyed it? Has it been a good money maker for you? We need to start our 2010 season off with a bang, and I think this would do it. What are your thoughts?

Now I disagree with that.  We had some younger folks along with older doing our "Charlie Brown" and they did quite well.  In fact, the older ones were better at 'acting' like kids than the 20 year olds.  The funniest thing was two shows later we had all by one member of the CB cast recast in "The Full Monty".

To anyone in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area (shipping some of these pieces across the country might be a bit expensive, due to their bulk), we have the COMPLETE set piece and prop package for rent, right down to the over-sized pencils and over-sized benches.  We even have the ability to "fly" Charlie Brown's kite and have it drop to the ground, right on cue.  The major set pieces can be seen here:

I played Snoopy in this production, and I'll tell you we were on a zero budget in the middle of bum---- egypt, and we had the largest crowds still. By all means, if you have the talent for this show, put it on and put it out. I wish someone around here was doing it again.

Very positive experience for me. Good luck.

In my opinion, "You're a Good Man Charlie Brown" is not a kiddie show, but is a nostalgic slice-of-life comedy for adults by adults. Some of the puns and observational "life humor" goes over the heads of many kids in the audience, (as well as child-age cast members), in much the same way that the puns and topical humor in those classic "Bugs Bunny" cartoons goes over the heads of little kids - kids who just like the campy violence.

I feel that the humor in Charlie Brown comes from the juxtaposition of the adult themes reflected in childhood situations. The original "Peanuts" comic strips were cute because tiny kids were spouting adult wisdom, (not unlike Stewie in "Family Guy" today), and because their entire world was seen from a little kid's height, with no adults, (much like the "Our Gang" serials in the 1940's).   The laughs that Gary Burghoff got as the teddy bear carrying "Radar" in the movie and TV show "M*A*S*H" could be traced to his Off Broadway portrayal of Charlie Brown a couple years earlier. (And his premature balding on M*A*S*H just made him look more and more like the mellon-headed Charlie Brown!) The original Off Broadway cast of Charlie Brown were all young adults, not actual kids playing kids.    When we did this show in high school, the tallest kid in the senior class played Linus, and he got huge laughs! Now every time I see Mark McCracken and his big cheesy grin, I can only think of him tightly hugging his security blanket and dancing around the stage in the most hilarious solo ever. Mark IS Linus.

I've done this show twice, (plus the sequel "Snoopy!" as my senior set/lighting design project in college). And in every case, I noticed that the critical key to "getting it right" was for the actors to play serious adult-like characters who just happen to be in childlike situations and costumes. (Child actors just don't have the life experience to pull it off for the big laughs). In fact, I have often daydreamed that if I were to direct the show someday. I would have my entire cast attend the first couple rehearsals in adult "suit and tie" attire, in order to establish this subtext.

Actors can call up imagery of contemporary adult figures when establishing their characters. For instance, Lucy is sort of a sadistic Oprah, dispensing destructive advice to Charlie Brown. When Lucy grows up, maybe she'll be like Venessa Williams on Ugly Betty. Snoopy is suave, in a tongue-in-cheek way, and is always making wink-wink asides to the audience, like Bruce Willis in Moonlighting.   Snoopy also has a Walter Mitty imagination that takes him to World War One and turns him into Bob Fosse for his "Suppertime" dance.   Linus is always contemplating deep thoughts, like the stoners that lay on the hood of a car and look at stars, as in "Wayne's World". Little sister Sally has a massive crush on Linus, which if left unchecked, could turn Sally into "Rose", Charlie Sheen's stocker on "Two 1/2 Men". And Schroeder doesn't even notice girls because he's so narrow-mindedly obsessed with Beethoven, just as the Trekkie on "Big Bang Theory" is obsessed with Mr. Spock. Of course our hero, Charlie Brown, is like "Mr. Cellophane" in Chicago, or early Woody Allen, or "Gilligan"...or maybe "Nepoleon Dynomite"...?

Whenever I bring up this play title to my directors, they instantly shoot it down as "children's theatre". Somehow they've got the wrong impression about this show. I think "You're a Good Man Charlie Brown" could be done in a black box studio as cabaret dinner theater with no kids around and it would kick butt. (The trick would be getting patrons in their seats before disclosing the name of the show...to avoid misconceptions).

Anyway, just my 2 cents worth...