During his life, Charles Schulz kept a tight grip on his creation and his characters. For the entirety of its nearly fifty-year run, he wrote and drew each Peanuts strip. He is the sole credited writer on all four of the Peanuts feature films as well as on nearly every special up to, and even after, his death. He is also the sole writer credited on The Charlie Brown and Snoopy Show. He also was the credited author on most of the Peanuts spin-off books. Other than TV commercials, about the only aspects of Peanuts that Schulz wasn't responsible for was Peanuts-related music. Vince Guaraldi wrote many of the familiar music of the specials, of course, and in late 1966, a novelty song called "Snoopy vs. the Red Baron", recorded by an obscure group called the Royal Guardsmen, became an unexpected smash, rising to #2 on the Billboard charts (Schulz and United Features Syndicate sued and won, but allowed the group to continue performing the song, and even writing other Snoopy-related music, in return for the publishing revenue). But outside of "Christmastime is Here" and "Linus and Lucy", probably the most enduring Peanuts-related songs are the ones from the musical You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown.
The songs were written by Clark Gesner, at the time a 20-something composer. After reaching out to Schulz and acquiring permission to record his songs, an album was released, and was successful enough that he was encouraged to turn it into a full-fledged musical. The off-Broadway show, whose most famous cast members today would probably be Gary Burghoff, who would go on to co-star on M*A*S*H, and Bob Balaban, a quintessential "Hey, it's That Guy!" actor whose probably most familiar from an arc on Seinfeld, would open to rave reviews in early 1967. It would run off-Broadway until 1971, before finally getting a short-lived transfer to Broadway. After that, it became a staple of community, regional, and school theaters. By 1985, with Schulz's interest in continuing to write TV scripts apparently beginning to wane, the decision was made to finally adapt the special to TV, with Gesner getting just as prominent credit as Schulz (technically, neither was given credit for writing, as the opening titles list Schulz as the creator and Gesner getting credit for "book, music and lyrics").
The stage show doesn't have an overarching storyline. Instead, it's a series of vignettes, usually consisting of a comic moment and a song. In the original production, there were six characters: Charlie Brown, Snoopy, Linus, Lucy, Schroeder, and Patty--Original Recipe, not Peppermint. The fact the show didn't include Peppermint Patty isn't a surprise, given that she had been just introduced the previous year, but including the first Patty was, since by 1967, she had largely been regulated to a background character (as evidenced by the fact that Schulz reused her name), and Sally was probably the most important female character after Lucy at that point.
The (second) TV adaption (the show had been filmed previously in 1973 for Hallmark Hall of Fame) required some editing, as the stage show runs roughly two hours, and CBS only allotted a one-hour timeslot (with commercials). That did not prove too difficult, given the lack of a storyline. The other major change for the animated version was to replace Patty with Sally, a change that also required giving a line to Marcie, who hadn't even been created when the musical was first performed. Patty is nowhere to be seen, and Peppermint Patty is regulated to a wordless cameo.
The most jarring aspect of the special for longtime Peanuts fans is that Snoopy talks. Of course, in the strip, Snoopy's thought balloons are readable, but from A Charlie Brown Christmas on, Snoopy has been silent in the specials, save for his barks and howls and whines. It's hard to justify a silent character in a musical, however, so the stage version of Snoopy gets several solo numbers. As at least a couple of them are the more popular songs from the show, we get to hear Snoopy speak and sing intelligible language for the first time, courtesy of Robert Towers, who in a stark contrast to his co-stars on the special was a fully-grown adult (he was 49 when the special premiered). He also had, by far, the best singing voice of the cast.
And about that singing...for the most part, it was shockingly terrible. There are talented kid singers out there, so it is mystifying why they hired so many kids who, at times, seemed like they couldn't carry a tune. Especially odd is whatever happened to Jesse Lee Smith, who did a fantastic job with her solo in It's Flashbeagle, Charlie Brown, but here is rather screechy in several numbers.
Other than the singing, the special is light and breezy, and most of the songs are quite clever. My personal favorite numbers were "The Book Report", in which we see the different ways Lucy, Schroeder, Linus, and Charlie Brown approach an assignment on Peter Rabbit, and "Glee Club Rehearsal", in which a run-through of "Home on the Range" descends into a four-way argument set to music.
This is Sam Jaimes's first solo directing credit, and the direction is fine. While I've had issues with Desirée Goyette's musical direction in the past, outside of the vocals, she does a good job in a special that's more musically complicated than Flashbeagle. Ed Bogas, who is on his way out as the specials' composer, handles the musical conductor duties in this one, and the instrumentals are all quite good.
Fourteen years after the special aired, You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown would receive a revival on Broadway, with some significant changes, most notably dropping Patty from the ensemble in favor of Sally, a change that first happened with this adaption. As a significant portion of the original stage show had to be dropped for time reasons, the special is not a substitute for seeing the show live. But it is a cute and fun adaption, one that serves both the legacy of the show and the legacy of the strip.
Next week: It's Labor Day, which means its the perfect time to say Happy New Year, Charlie Brown.
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