Charlie Brown

Does anyone remember the last revival? It might have been a flop but it was nominated for best revival of a musical at the Tonys and won Kristen Chenoweth a Tony. My high school is doing it for the musical this year and want to know how they did it.

Updated On: 10/30/13 at 01:13 AM

..Not really sure what you're asking in regards to how they did it? But yes, I remember it well. For a family-friendly musical I thought it was very well done.

You can search for this information pretty readily. Try IBDB.com (Internet Broadway Data Base) for casting info.

You haven't asked for very specific information, but its a pretty simple show that should always look like a comic strip come to life. It's cute. Like the Peanuts.

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There is great controversy over the two alternate version of the show, each with a sensibility that represented the Peanuts media and its audience at the time.

The original from 1968 is from an era before the Charlie Brown holiday specials and merchandising really entered the popular consciousness in an enormous way. The tone is gentle, quiet and somewhat whimsical. The characters, dialogue and music are much more childlike and intentionally simple. Charlie Brown's perpetual loserdom, Lucy's near-sociopathic cruelty, Schroeder's monomania and Snoopy's flights of fancy are downplayed, and taken to less extremes than the revival. No one is all that eccentric or neurotic, and Sally Brown is absent, replaced with the earlier (now nonexistent) character of Patty, who was the comic's straight man.

The 1999 version, thirty years after the big boom in Peanuts popularity, reflects the changed times and the changed perception of the characters. This time, cuteness is out and neurosis is in. Charlie Brown is a bundle of nerves and existential crises, Schroeder is a ticking time bomb, Lucy is gleefully and perpetually infuriating everyone she comes in contact with, and Sally Brown is just shy of nuts. The music is also somewhat more complex and eccentric in terms of added melodies and bridges, as well as its chamber orchestrations.

If the original is done well, then by the time the ensemble gets to "Happiness", the show can leave you in tears.

There was never ANY danger of that in the revival.

for starters, no one EVER calls him Charlie. He is always Charlie Brown. (Well, Peppermint Patty calls him 'chuck' but that isn't in the musical -- at least not the original.)

Read the comic books.

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I played the role of Charlie Brown last year at a local theatre, and I agree that Anthony Rapp's rendition isn't the best to work off of. Really, just stick to the original character. However, some of the songs don't let Charlie Brown stay as self-kept and shy as he normally is, like in The Book Report, his part makes him frantic and on the verge of a nervous breakdown; it's the same for the song The Kite, he's panicky and all over the place. In his scenes with Lucy, however you get to see the lovable, relatable comic strip character everyone has grown to love. This is also seen in The Baseball Game, since his hard efforts still don't work out for him. He's not loud and paranoid, he's just a guy whose luck never turns out in his favor, but he still makes the best out of what and who he has.

LMcC95, the show doesn't have a tone that's hard to work with. It's the directors that ignore what the show is and try to make it something that it isn't.

It's a small, simple show where "less is more." It's just like "The Fantasticks." If you try to give it a production that is overblown, it just doesn't work. These shows were designed for off-Broadway and meant to be small, intimate productions.

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i saw a production in san diego that opened several months after his death... it was in a small intimate theater and it was just a wonderful production... i never thought I would cry at the end of Happiness but it was just so beautifully done that i just couldn't help it...

I have both cast albums. To me the revival CD is spoiled by Linus. The actor has a very deep almost bass voice. I just don't picture Linus with that kind of a voice. I do like much of the new score, additions and changes, but some of the orchestrations seem a bit wrong for this show.

Congrats Break legs!