Stage Review - You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown (Ovation Performing Arts NW)

Stage Review - You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown
Presented By: Ovation Performing Arts NW - Bainbridge Island, WA
Show Run: January 10 - January 19, 2025
Date Reviewed: Friday, January 10, 2025 (Opening Night)
Run Time: 2 Hours (includes a 15-minute intermission)
Reviewed By: Greg Heilman

For the past few years, Ovation Performing Arts NW could have been found presenting their shows at the auditorium at Bainbridge High School. The high school provides a decent venue for a show, but it’s not exactly the most intimate setting. With the opening of the newly renovated and reimagined Buxton Center at Bainbridge Performing Arts, an option more suited to the kinds of shows that Ovation produces has availed itself, and it appears as though the theatre company may have found its new home. While the venue may have changed, one thing that hasn’t is the theme of Ovation’s winter musical. Year after year, the group chooses a show that isn’t just family friendly from an audience perspective, but also something that invites both adults and younger actors to participate in, like The Sound of Music, or Cinderella, each shows they have done in previous years, which keeps the shows in line with the educational mission of the company. This year’s winter musical is consistent with that mission with two exceptions. First, the musical You’re a Good Man Charlie Brown runs on stage in January rather than the traditional December timeframe, running through the 19th, and secondly, Director Julie Johnson is utilizing two casts, well, one actual cast that is comprised of both adults and younger actors, with each playing leads and ensemble parts on alternating nights. For opening night, it was the adults turn to play the leads with the younger set in the ensemble, while Saturday’s performance was to have the actors switch the roles. Regardless of the cast, You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown, with characters and stories based on the Charles M. Schultz comics, music and lyrics by Clark Gesner and Andrew Lippa, and a book by John Gordon (John Gordon is really a pseudonym for the team of creatives that came together to write the script for the show), is a simple, fun, and nostalgic journey into the world of the Peanuts.

The musical features most of the familiar Peanuts characters from the comics and the television specials, Charlie Brown, Lucy, Linus, Schroeder, Sally, Snoopy, and Woodstock, and generally the personalities on stage will resonate to those familiar with the ones from TV, though there are some obvious deviations. A challenge for the playwrights of You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown was to take characters who are presented slow and methodically on television and create a show that is energetic and engaging for the audience. Lucy will always be Lucy, she’s rude, self-centered, and opinionated, and Sally’s stage persona is probably the closest to what we’ve come to expect through television, but the others all have much more energy than their counterparts on the small screen. Charlie Brown is still hapless and at times hopeless, but he’s also hopeful in the musical, with a little less naiveté than we’ve come to know, and Schroeder talks a heck of a lot more, and not just about Beethoven. It’s Linus and Snoopy, though, where the biggest differences lie. Linus, the smart one, with one thumb in his mouth and a hand on his blanket, is still all of those things, but his familiar monotone has been replaced by an overly energetic delivery and his spirited sprinting around the stage is hard to reconcile at times with the years of what we’ve grown familiar with in the character. With Snoopy, it had to be even more difficult. How does one bring a dog, who only talks through thought balloons in the comics, and then mostly when he’s playing his alter ego, the World War I Flying Ace, to the stage in such a way that he talks, sings, and dances, and keep him in his utmost Snoopiness? These latter two characters, to me, feel like a stretch at times, but once one takes a step back, suspending disbelief as it were, and stops trying to make such a comparison to their more familiar versions, it’s easy to find enjoyment in them. It’s also easy to find enjoyment in the music, from ensemble numbers like “Happiness”, “Glee Club Rehearsal”, and “You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown”, to others that feature individuals or smaller groups, like Charlie Brown’s “The Kite”, Schroeder’s “Beethoven Day”, and what is probably the signature tune from the show, “The Book Report”. In fact, the show is structured around the musical numbers, bouncing from one to the next, the songs joined together by vignettes, or small scenes, scenes that harken back to the comics and the television specials, and scenes where the audience gets to see more of the personalities of the characters than they do in the songs, to be frank.

As a reviewer, I’m once again dismayed at the fact that I could only take in one iteration of the cast for this show, that being the adults playing the leads along with the youth ensemble. I have no doubt that when the roles are switched that the show is just as enjoyable, I’m sure for different reasons. Vocally, the kids are strong, that enough is clear from their harmonies and strong voices in the ensemble numbers. Music Director Will Sanders has prepared the entire cast for this musical, but not just for one role. It’s important to note that each actor in the cast, with the exception of Olivia Haas, who plays Woodstock in all of the performances, has had to learn the vocals for two parts, much in the same way they’ve had to learn the blocking and choreography for two roles. Thankfully, You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown is relatively simple to stage, though simple in no way means easy. The set is mainly projections that resemble comic frames, or other backgrounds, designed by Benji Johnson, and props from Alex Johnson that support the context of the musical numbers, like Snoopy’s doghouse, or Lucy’s psychiatrist “office”. Along with Will’s work with Music Direction, and by the way the live band that accompanies the actors in the show is very good, Julie’s entire creative team, including Choreographer Olivia Ingram, has set this group up for success with their preparation, and through the cast’s execution.

There isn’t even an inkling that any of these actors aren’t confident in what they’re doing on stage, that perhaps having to learn two parts could cause any confusion or the odd misstep. There are plenty of opportunities for that to happen, the show moves quickly, there’s a lot of movement, and the transitions from song to vignette to song again are rapid. On opening night, nothing seemed amiss, and the entire group performed with all of the confidence that their roles require to make the musical fun and entertaining. It can’t seem like work, or effort in a show like this, it has to look fun, and it does. David Ward plays Charlie Brown very nicely. There’s a longing to his character, the hopefulness that transcends all of the negative things that just seem to keep happening to him. David plays Charlie Brown and does so carrying a light in his eyes that never seems to extinguish despite everything. It’s that hope, that positivity that makes Charlie Brown the enduring and endearing character that he has been for so long, and David captures these characteristics nicely. Meanwhile, Charis Goolsby is Lucy in all of her arrogant know-it-all glory, and though her facts might not always add up, Charis’ Lucy is ultra confident in them. Lucy is also doing her best to get her little brother Linus, played by Hallie Rohlinger, to quit the blanket habit, and while unsuccessful, Charis and Hallie are fun to watch in their struggle, and perform well together in “Queen Lucy”, as does Charis with David in “The Doctor is In”. And while a Linus with as much energy as this took a bit of adjusting for me, I do like how Hallie portrays him. If you’re going to play the character, go all in, and she does. The object of Lucy’s affections, Schroeder, is played wonderfully by Isaac Ettobi, and I like this performance a lot. Isaac carries his Schroeder with a wonderful posture that screams awkwardness, and his vocal delivery matches that word for word, his portrayal is a complete one, and it’s funny in a very dry way. On the subject of wonderful portrayals, I also really like Holly Burns as Sally. Arguably, Sally has less stage time than the other characters, but Holly takes full advantage of the time she does have, and anyone who loves the character from the television specials will absolutely adore her performance here. Finally, there’s Snoopy and Carly Cloward’s performance. Carly is extremely funny as Charlie Brown’s canine companion, and her performance in the Act 2 opener as the World War I Flying Ace in “The Red Baron” is a show stopper. Snoopy is in and out of the show quite a bit, whether it’s stealing a blanket, or participating in the Glee Club rehearsal, and each time Carly delivers hilariously.

For those who get to see the kids take the stage as the leads, they’ll get to see Zoe LaRubbio as Charlie Brown, Ashley Dylan as Snoopy, Madeline Huck as Lucy, Emma Vincent as Schroeder, Silvia Ursino as Linus, and Willow Schmidt as Sally. Again, Olivia Haas is Woodstock in both versions of the cast and, fluttering about the stage, adorned in yellow as Snoopy’s best friend would be. Thankfully, though, everyone will get a chance to see all of these talented actors, regardless of which version of the cast they see.

You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown is a fun and nostalgic musical that is entertaining for the whole family. Ovation Performing Arts NW’s winter musical is full of catchy songs performed wonderfully by a cast of adults and kids along with vignettes and scenes that are sure to take anyone back to the days of the Peanuts TV specials and Charles Schultz’ daily comic strips. Ovation’s first show in its new home at the Buxton Center at Bainbridge Performing Arts is a good one and is a lighthearted and good way to start off the second half of the 2024-25 theatre season.

The Ovation Performing Arts NW production of You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown runs on stage through Sunday, January 19 at the Buxton Center for Performing Arts on Bainbridge Island. For more information, including ticket availability and sales, visit https://www.ovationmtb.com/.

Photo credit: Keith Brofsky