Schools

Review: Energetic Cast Brings 'You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown' to Life at Annandale High

The Annandale High School drama team brought the comics to life for a truly entertaining performance.

The Lovin' Spoonful's first ever top ten hit single, "Do You Believe in Magic" plays in the background of a stage covered with giant baby blocks. Setting the tone for the innocent and adorable  antics of the teens turned toddlers in Annandale High School's production of You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown.

The musical called You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown originally started an concept album created by Clark Gesner that gave praise to Charles M. Schulz's famous comic strip, "Peanuts". However, after giving it a listen, Arthur Whitelaw highly supported the notion to turn these songs into a full fledged musical. A stage production quickly debuted off-broadway and won several awards including "Outstanding Off-Broadway Musical". In 1999, a revival was staged on Broadway featuring Roger Bart and Kristin Chenoweth who won awards for their performances.

The musical is often a favorite choice for community and high school theatres, due to it's very small cast, and simple technical designs. Also, the plot is written around creating small vignettes of Charlie Brown's life, rather than having a standard three act structure.

Our lovable loser, Charlie Brown, was portrayed by Andy Riddle. It should be noted that Charlie Brown's original actor became sick before the show opened, so Andy Riddle jumped in as understudy with a limited number of rehearsals. That being said, Riddle could've fooled anyone with his performance. Riddle offered an incredibly strong performance that mixed with his angelic voice, and an extremely amazing characterization of Charlie Brown's self-deprecating tones and movements, delivered  pounds of pathos to the audience in scenes like "The Baseball Game" where he loses his team's opportunity to become champions. Snoopy, portrayed by Deanna Gowland, mesmerized with her impeccable comic timing and beautiful voice. She stole the show in a number of scenes she was involved in, especially in her solo numbers "Snoopy" and "Suppertime".

In this incredibly energetic cast, The Van Pelts, Lucy and Linus (Portrayed by Gwen Levy, and Harris Fitzgerel respectively.) both shined through. Lucy and Linus showed tremendous chemistry as two squabbling siblings in scenes where Lucy constantly mocks Linus' security blanket. However in certain moments, such as when Linus needs to find a way to cheer Lucy up once she discovers she's the crabbiest person alive, the two share the unavoidable family love they have for each other.

Even though the show calls for basic tech, Annandale's tech team went all-out for this performance. Starting by making every single prop and set piece be cartoonishly large in order to dwarf the performers and further portray them as six year old children. Deanna Gowland's choreography brought a sensational feel to each and every song in the production especially in big cast numbers such as "My Blanket and Me" which features a whole dance line of dancing blankets. Additionally, the orchestra was extraordinary every song was properly harmonized with every actor who sang. Some mics cut out at various points, but it was hardly noticeable as all the actors had clear projection and could still be easily heard and understood.

Annandale High School brought an amazingly adorable illustration of the crazy comic strips we all know and love, and produced a truly entertaining performance.

by Brennan Laskas of Teens and Theatre Homeschool Program


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