Theater: You re a Good Man Charlie Brown

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You're a Good Man Charlie Brown

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This delightful play can be best described as an endearing portrayal of a middling day of Charlie Brown's life. Based on the characters created by Charles M. Schulz this play has a very poignant and mass appeal which makes its all so popular. This is aptly reflected by the ticket sales which continue to go up. Many of us who have over the years have grown fond of the enchanting comic strip Peanuts come over to watch it again and again.

The show encompasses a day made up of little sweet moments chosen from different days in the life of Charlie Brown. The canvas extends from Valentine's Day through the baseball season, from unbridled optimism to sheer despair, all intertwined with the lives of his near and dear ones. The characters of Charlie Brown, Snoopy, Lucy, and Linus all come alive in their sparkling flavor and endearing pleasantness. We all start liking the affable Charlie Brown, that oh so round-headed kid who tries too hard assume a perfect social image and fails miserably. The odds are always staked against him. His baseball team is always on the losing side, and Lucy never fails to pull the football away and even his kite is hardly in the air. Even then Charlie Brown succeeds because he comes to understand the things can take a turn from bad to good within minutes and we all love his belief.

The play begins with brief remarks on the nature of his personality and character by his friends, Charlie Brown is introduced into the limelight as the song "You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown" plays sublimely in the background. We find him musing about his true love as he slowly eats his lunch. The character which we imagined while reading the comic strip becomes alive with its mushy charm and subdued sadness.

One of the most memorable and touching scenes is seen when Valentine's Day comes and goes and our poor hero receiving not even one single valentine. He tries to seek temporarily relief in a psychiatry booth which is incredibly funny as well as mildly tragic. The music however has an altogether feel good appeal to it and is intrinsically weaved. It picks up as we watch the four friends make about their personal struggles with the homework assignment wherein they write an essay on "Peter Rabbit" with varying level of success or the lack of same. The songs which Snoopy gets to do deserve a special mention, for their simple and heart warming tunes.

The characterization is very warm and the witty fights are reflected wonderfully. As the evening draws to the day all the gathered friends start singing about their personal views about happiness and then they move on. As the music grows mushy we find Lucy makings a very uncharacteristic gesture as she slowly mentions Charlie Brown what a really good man he is. The mushy feeling lingers long after we leave the theatres and many people get tickets for enjoying the show again with their loved ones.