After the huge success of the 1967 Off-Broadway musical You’re a Good Man Charlie Brown (see previous review) the musical has become part of the repertory for schools, churches, and all community theaters. Then in 1999 It was given a face lift. Michael Leavitt of Fox Theatricals decided on director Michael Mayer to head this revival. Mayer got Andrew Lippa to sign on to update the orchestrations and lyrics of Clark Gesner’s songs and add a few new ones, two to be exact. Then Mayer headed to California and like Gesner before him, sought Charles M. Schulz approval. Schulz again fully supported the project and gave Mayer the 32 years worth of “Peanuts” strips that had been published since 1967. With these new comics Mayer revised, deleted, and added scenes. In addition to new scenes, Mayer cut Patty and added Charlie Brown’s sister Sally. A culturally diverse cast was collected and the end result is this wonderful CD.
When listening to the two productions side by side the differences are remarkable. The new cast, including Anthony Rapp as Charlie Brown and Kristin Chenoweth as Sally, approaches the Peanuts characters with the same innocence but a higher degree of musical ability than the ’67 cast. Lippa’s new arrangements are wonderfully hip and make the musical much more fun, however, he takes away some of the simplicity. I am a Lippa fan, and do enjoy his additions to the musical (Beethoven Day is so much fun), but I feel that the original is closer to what the actual characters would have heard in their mind’s soundtrack.
Unfortunately for this 1999 Broadway revival it only ran for 14 previews and 149 performances. Even with its short run it was awarded Tonys for Best Featured Actor and Best Featured Actress (Roger Bart as Snoopy and Chenoweth as Sally) and won the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Revival of a Musical.
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