You're A Good Man Charlie Brown Revival Question

Beethoven Day and My New Philosophy were added.

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Is anyone else really bothered, as I am, by the song "Beethoven Day"? Okay, the decision was made to cast an African-American actor as Schroeder. Interesting, because Schroeder is blond in the strip, but whatever. I have no problem with the non-traditional casting. What I do have a problem with is the song written for him, which strikes me as a profoundly racist choice. Why is the song written in, for lack of better words, a "gospel soul" style? Schroeder is a classical musician. Why is he celebrating Beethoven in this style of song? I'll tell you why: Because the actor they cast is African-American. And heck, you couldn't have an African-American actor sing a legit or even quasi-operatic song! That's not "what they do"!
If Anthony Rapp had been cast as Schroeder instead, that song would never have been written. This is the total opposite of the "color-blind casting" of which I'm guessing this production was proud. "Well, if we have an African-American Schroeder, we'll have to give him a gospel song!" (Even if he's singing about classical music.) This is exactly the kind of thinking that kept African American actors in the Stepin Fetchit roles they were "expected" to play for years.

I'm pretty sure Schroeder loves all music, not just classical. I remember strips where Lucy would get frustrated with the classical music he was playing, say so, and storm off, and as soon as she was gone, he would start playing something more up beat and current. He is a man of many talents!

"The show may need a rousing up-tempo number, but it also needs songs that fit the characters, and that one doesn't."

The song has its basis in Vince Guraldi's music from "A Charlie Brown Christmas" where Schroeder starts jamming on the piano. They even steal a few bars from Guraldi. I'm sure Beethoven Day was written before the decision to hire an African-American actor.

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Also, the understudy was, I believe, Asian-American. I never really thought the song sounded all that 'black'. I thought any of the 'gospel' flavor was added by Stanley Wayne Mathis.

Oh...and I'm one of the three people on the planet that loved this revival.

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I hadn't seen Bart in anything till then. I've been a fan ever since. I adored his Snoopy. But the Lucy (was it Illana Levine) made my night. She could barely sing...but she did it loudly and was an absolute riot.

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robbiej - I loved it too!

sparrman-
Just because the song is about Beethoven doesn't mean it needs to sound like it was written by Beethoven. They do use a section of Beethoven's music within the song.

"Schroeder's personality may be narrowly defined, but trying to fill it out with a generic "blackness" is a lazy, artistically bankrupt, and racist decision. And I can't believe for a second that the song "just happened" to be a gospel song, with no forethought to the ethnicity of the actor who would perform it."

As far as that statement is concerned, I think you are making a lot of assumptions that you don't really have a right to make. Frist of all, having grown up in as a pastor's kid, I can tell you first hand that black people are not the only people who sing gospel and it's kind of racist for you to think that. Second of all, I would hardly consider the situation artistically bankrupt; I would consider it you disagreeing with a choice that was made by the creatvie team of a show. There are many poeple who find that song wonderful. Thirdly, the only way to know whether Stanley Wayne Mathis was hired as Schroeder before or after the song was writeen would be to ask Andrew Lippa, Stanley Wayne Mathis, or anyone on the creatvie team personally.

As far as the song itself is concerned, the song is more about the idea of having a holiday so everyone can celebrate your hero with you rather than about Beethoven himself. And, in all honesty, the song is so much more showtune than gospel. I agree with Robbiej that the gospel flavor was added by the actor. Either way, it is a great song that has added to the show. But then again, I am not obsessed with Beethoven, so who am I to say anything.....

Maybe it's the fact that both Schroeders at my high school were white, but "Beethoven Day" as a gospel song comes as news to me. I always saw it as very showtune-y, broadway-style.

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I would call it more of a "Funk" style, a la The Wiz more than Gospel, but it has elements of different styles mixed in.

"Lippa is a very talented man, but his (and director Mayer's) additions to this show were, IMHO, unnecessary and fairly awful."

Thank goodness. I thought I was the only one that thought this. Took a fairly charming show, ignored its style and rammed in material that was supposed to appeal to modern day kids. It was like adding a JLo song to A Midsummer Night's Dream.

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i'm doing it at a community theater right now and we're doing the original version and adding my new philosophy and hopefully Beethoven Day since i'm Schroeder haha. If you look at the original script, everybody has their own song except Patty (Now Sally) and Schroeder.

Lippa wrote the new songs and reworked the old ones long before Stanley was cast.