You’re a Good Man Charlie Brown
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| Program Cover |
Book, Music, and Lyrics by Clark Gesner
Additional dialogue by Michael Mayer
Additional Music and Lyrics by Andre Lippa
Nostalgic for the good old days? Reminiscing about the simpler and innocent times from childhood? Head on down to the Artistry stage for their current production of the musical You’re A Good Man Charlie Brown, based on the Peanuts characters by Charles M. Schulz.
This 1967 musical has been in NYC a few times over the year. Probably most notably is the 1999 Broadway production that featured actress Kristen Chenoweth as Sally Brown.
This is not your typical musical. There’s not an overall plot, it’s vignettes of Charlie Brown and the gang. There’s Lucy’s psychiatric stand, the kite getting stuck in a tree, a baseball game, Schroeder playing piano, Snoopy flying after the Red Barron and many more.
The reason to see this show is the cast! It’s a great who’s who of the Twin Cities theater acting
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| The cast list, from the program |
community. The casting for this show is spot on. Jay Albright plays Charlie Brown, and he looks like how Charlie Brown would look as an adult. He was perfect. Michelle Barber plays Sally, and really capture her personality. Bradley Greenwald brought so much to the role of Snoopy. One of my favorite moments was when Snoopy was battling the Red Barron and Snoopy’s arms did the machine gun action. That is so Snoopy. Perfectly cast as Linus is Tod Peterson, Tod embodies Linus so well, and knows how to use Linus’s blue blanket. Jen Santoro Rotty embodies Lucy strong personality. Joenathan Thomas brings life to our favorite piano player Schroeder.
There really isn’t a scenic designer listed in the program. I really enjoyed how they designed Schroeder’s piano and Snoopy’s dog house. They looked and felt inspired by the comics and animated specials. Costume Coordinator Britt Hilton did a great job giving those adults costumes that felt reminiscent of these characters. The acting, scenery and costumes helped to transport us to the neighborhood of the Peanuts gang.
Artistry has a fun show playing with You’re A Good Man Charlie Brown. The musical runs through October 25, 2026. Check out www.artistrymn.org for tickets.
