BRATTLEBORO — America's favorite round-headed kid and his friends will take over the Brattleboro Union High School Auditorium stage when the BUHS Players present the hit Broadway musical, You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown, on Oct. 20 and 21 at 7 p.m. All seats are $6 at the door.
Originally produced on Broadway in 1967, this highly popular show based on the “Peanuts” comics created by Charles M. Schulz and with book, music, and lyrics by Clark Gesner, played for 1,597 performances with Gary Burghoff (later Radar in “M*A*S*H”) in the title role.
The musical traces an ordinary day in the life of the very ordinary Charlie Brown. He must give a book report; he pines over the distant but fatally attractive little red-haired girl as he eats lunch by himself on the playground; he struggles to get his kite in the air; and he seeks advice at Lucy's 5-cent psychiatry booth.
Though Charlie Brown (Mason Redfield) is the central character in the musical, the rest of the “Peanuts” gang is also on hand: talented Schroeder (James Shanti-Strother), who plays Beethoven on his toy piano; loveable Linus (Henry O'Connell), who philosophizes like an adult, but hangs on to his security blanket; precocious Sally (Alissa Walkowiak), who finds it hard to accept low grades on her essay and wire hanger sculpture; crabby Lucy (Sarah Gordon-Macey), who conducts a survey of her friends in order to find out just how crabby she really is; and the overly dramatic Snoopy (Lizzy Arel), who pretends he's a vulture perched on top of his doghouse, when he is not off chasing the infamous Red Baron in his Fokker tri-plane.
The production is under the direction of Robert Kramsky and Elyse Wadsworth and stage managed by Liam Kennedy. Patty Meyer will accompany the singers on piano and Sebastian Paquette will add percussion. Choreography is by Corinne Epstein.