Photo by Ryan Loyd, RYLO Media Design
SLO Rep is ending its 78th season with a bang, even if the show in question doesn’t have the complicated layers of The Cake, the flamboyant acting in I Hate Hamlet, or Dave Linfield’s dynamic rotating set of The Musical of Musicals (The Musical)!
No, the bang for your buck here is the loud, childlike voices of the six cast members in You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown, the 1967 musical with book, music and lyrics by Clark Gesner based on the Peanuts comic strip created by Charles M. Schulz. It’s on SLO Rep’s main stage through June 29.
Director Suzy Newman has chosen to emphasize the simple, the direct, and the uncomplicated, much like the vignettes that make up the show. There’s no real throughline or plot, just snippets of a day in the life of Charlie Brown (Billy Breed at his most contained)—reminiscent of the daily cartoon panels we have enjoyed since the comic strip debuted in 1950.
The cast of (human) characters is complete with Katie Worley-Beck as Lucy (who is very clear that she prefers Frère Jacques over Beethoven), Darren Doran as the piano prodigy Schroeder, Darrell Haynes as the never-without-his blanket Linus who nimbly and admirably survives a punch in the nose from Lucy, and Jill Price in curly wig as Sally. All are true to their characters’ natures.
But in this production, as well as the comic strip, our imagination is most satisfied when Snoopy, the one non-human in the group, comes alive. Jeffrey Salsbury is lively and joyous and cartwheelingly happy in the canine role that really livens up the show (especially when it comes to “Suppertime”).
The costumes by Reneé Van Niel, musical direction by Lacey McNamara, choreography by Drew Silvaggio, and props by Suzy Newman are unadorned (in a good way) and appropriate to the straightforward nature of the production.
There is one sad note (of exclusion, not inclusion) that cannot be laid at the feet of SLO Rep. Unfortunately, the show’s creators did not include the infamous football gag that so clearly defines part of the relationship between Lucy and Charlie Brown (if you know Peanuts, you know what I mean).
However, Salsbury’s Snoopy evading the Red Baron in order to fight another day almost makes up for that omission. Almost.