Review: You’re A Good Man, Charlie Brown, Bridewell Theatre

Review: You’re A Good Man, Charlie Brown, Bridewell Theatre

Summary

Rating

80

Excellent

Another incredibly charming production from Sedos, this is a must see musical for anyone with even a vague fondness for the genre.

The first time I saw a production by the amateur theatre company Sedos I raved about it so much that I felt the need to add a disclaimer stating that I wasn’t linked to the company in any way, as it was the kind of review that praised it so highly the odd eyebrow might have been raised. And five years on from that performance of How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying I find myself feeling the urge to do so again, as their latest show is so sublime.

Based on Charles M Schulz‘s greatly adored newspaper strip Peanuts, this production often has a similar structure to the (mostly) four panel comic strips, where a character or two will enter the stage, a brief exchange will take place, before the skit comes to an end, and every single one of them made me either grin like a loon or laugh out loud. Schulz had a fantastic knack for capturing dry, wry and occasional melancholic aspects of life, and coming out of the mouths of young children like Charlie Brown (Rob Kelly), his sister Sally (Claire Brewin), friend Linus (Stephen McLoughlin) or classmate Lucy (Natasha Jeffrey) only serves to make them funnier.

While there’s not really an overall narrative arc to the play it isn’t only a collection of short sketches, as there are a number of sequences which highlight the physical comedy of the comic, and these often include an incredibly on form David Gregory as Snoopy. Equally strong on this front is Jeffrey: in the strips Lucy can be a little exhausting but here on the Bridewell stage she is an absolute delight as the much needed slightly antagonistic character towards poor old Charlie. And Charlie Brown really does deserve all the sympathy in the world as he mulls about the nature of humanity, comments on his failure to talk to the girl he’s attracted to, and how ultimately he only really wants to experience the simple joys in life such as being able to fly a kite or win a baseball game. In his first role for Sedos, Kelly is an example of perfect casting as he encapsulates Brown’s mixture of anxiety, pathos and kindness with aplomb, though all of the cast are absolutely wonderful too, and all have fantastic voices to match.

The quality of the songs is the only thing which is stopping this being a five star review, and don’t get me wrong, they are pretty fantastic, coming complete with memorable tunes and very funny lyrics, but only a couple are of the quality where you’ll find yourself humming them for days (or years) afterwards. I do feel slightly mean about commenting on this as well as I loved this production so much, and it’s in no way relating to the cast or crew, just the original source material.

Otherwise this was one of the most fun nights at the theatre that I’ve had in ages. This play is charm personified, an absolutely delightful, whimsical and hilarious production that manages to be simplistic but also extremely clever. If you’ve even the vaguest fondness for musical theatre this is a must see, and Sedos have once again proven that they’re more than capable of producing professional quality theatre of the highest order.

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Based on the Comic Strip Peanuts by Charles M. Schulz.
Book, Music and Lyrics by Clark Gesner
Director: Mark Siddall
Musical director: Ed Steward
Choreography: Taylor Davidson
Set Design: Andrew Laidlaw and Mark Steward
Lighting Design: Shiri Stern
Sound Design: Pranav Mahesh and Henry Whittaker
Costume and Props Design: Caroline Rice

You’re A Good Man, Charlie Brown runs until Saturday 13th July at the Bridewell Theatre.

Further information and details of how to book can be found here.