You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown
You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown is a 1967 musical with music and lyrics by Clark Gesner and (in a 1999 revision) Andrew Lippa. It is based on the characters created by cartoonist Charles M. Schulz in his comic strip Peanuts. The musical has been a popular choice for amateur theatre productions because of its small cast and simple staging.[1]
This article is about the stage musical. For the 1985 animated television adaptation, see You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown (TV special).You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown
Clark Gesner
John Gordon
1967 Off-Broadway
1968 West End
1968 U.S. Tour
1969 U.S. Tour
1970 U.S. Tour
1971 Broadway
1998 U.S. Tour
1999 Broadway revival
2016 Off-Broadway revival
Background[edit]
John Gordon was credited with the book of the show, but according to Gesner's foreword in the published script, "John Gordon" is a collective pseudonym that covers Gesner, the cast members, and the production staff, all of whom worked together to assemble the script. The Guide to Musical Theatre notes that "John Gordon is a pseudonym for the staff and cast of the show. The original cast included Bob Balaban, Gary Burghoff, Bill Hinnant, Skip Hinnant, Karen Johnson and Reva Rose."[2][3][4]
History[edit]
During the early 1960s, Gesner had begun writing songs based on Charles Schulz's Peanuts characters, but was unable to get permission from United Feature Syndicate to use the characters in his songs. Eventually Gesner sent Schulz a demo recording of some of the songs and Gesner soon had permission to properly record them, which he did in 1966.[5] Orson Bean sang the role of Charlie Brown, Clark Gesner sang Linus, Barbara Minkus sang Lucy, and Bill Hinnant sang Snoopy (he reprised his role in the Off-Broadway production).
At the time, Gesner had no plans for a musical based on this pre-production "concept album". However, producer Arthur Whitelaw, who would later go on to write another musical based on Peanuts entitled: Snoopy! The Musical, encouraged Gesner to turn the album into a musical.[6]
The stage adaptation of the concept album, titled You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown,[7] went into rehearsal in New York City on February 10, 1967.[8] Prior to its opening, the musical had no actual libretto; it was several vignettes with a musical number for each one.[8]
Instrumentation[edit]
The instrumentation varies greatly and three kinds exist.
In the original Off-Broadway production, the instrumentation was simply a piano (doubling on toy piano and melodica), a bass, and percussion. It can be heard on the original cast recording.
When Tams-Witmark acquired the rights to Charlie Brown, the orchestration was rewritten from the original version. The complete orchestration contained a piano, bass, guitar, percussion, five woodwind parts, two trumpets, horn, trombone, and strings. The piano player can also be doubled on celeste, toy piano, and melodica; the first woodwind plays flute and piccolo; the second is the second flute part; the third and fourth are the first and second clarinet parts respectively; the fifth on bass clarinet and tenor sax. Any guitar, horn, and string parts (excluding bass) were all optional.[31]
When Charlie Brown was brought back to Broadway in 1999, the orchestration was deeply revised, containing a five-piece orchestra that consisted of a piano, bass, percussion, a woodwind player, and a violinist. The piano player can double on keyboard synthesizer and kazoo; the bass player doubles on electric and acoustic bass, tenor recorder, and kazoo (in the original Broadway pit the bass player also doubled on acoustic and electric guitar); the woodwind part doubles on piccolo, flute, clarinet, soprano and alto sax, soprano recorder, and kazoo; the violin part also doubles on viola, alto recorder, kazoo, and tambourine. The percussionist primarily plays drum set but doubles on vibraphone, bells, triangle, timpani, and xylophone, with the parts intended to be played with a synthesizer. This version is also available through Tams-Witmark.[32]
Adaptations[edit]
In 1973, the show was adapted for television in a Hallmark Hall of Fame TV special, broadcast on NBC.[48] Actors featured in the adaptation included original 1967 cast member Bill Hinnant as Snoopy.[49] Hinnant was the only member of the original off-Broadway cast to reprise their role in the special.
CBS aired a new prime-time animated TV special in 1985, based on the original musical.[50] This version was the first animated depiction of Snoopy with comprehensible dialogue, voiced by Robert Towers, who previously portrayed the role in the 1967 Los Angeles production alongside Burghoff as Charlie Brown and Judy Kaye as Lucy.
Original cast albums have been released for all three versions of the stage show, however the 1973 Hallmark Hall of Fame recording on Atlantic Records is no longer in print.