| Review: You're A Good Man Charlie Brown |
| The first review of this show comes from The Bard, let's see what he thought of the can of Peanuts...... |
| Well, let's get a few things cleared up first: 1. I am terribly in love with the REVIVAL VERSION of the show. Ask anybody, they will almost always tell you it's better than the original, which is the version I'm reviewing. 2. Second, I am seeing the Coyne/Kemp group, and have yet to see the other group perform. With that out of the way, let's see what I thought. Alright, let me start with the praise, character by character: Charlie Brown: Now, I don't know what to think here. He got the job done, which is always neccessary. But, as the lead, he was sadly overshadowed by the incredible acting of the other (and older) actors. When compared to the other actors I am sad to say a better job could have been done here. Lucy: I LOVED the way this character was played, despite the small bursts of Coyne that we could see every so often, usually in the exits offstage. She totally set in stone the exact way I would have wanted this character played. I don't know what else to say except that she made the show worth seeing by herself. Snoopy: Now, I'm also one of those people that thinks Peter Pan should always be played by a man, it's just the way it goes. And the same goes here with Snoopy. Now, I loved Collett's portrayal of Snoopy, especially "Suppertime", but there is a certain personality trait that comes with a guy playing Snoopy. But there is no room to change that, so, in short: Naomi did a great job for a girl. :) Linus: I couldn't have picked a more perfect person for the role. Ripley just oozes that intelligent look that I always see with Linus. I loved the way he was played, and his scenes with Lucy were especially good. "My Blanket..." was a personal favorite of mine. Schroeder: David Lee is a musical person, so it was easy to see him this way. He also played this character not unlike Elwood P. Dowd in "Harvey". I liked the character, especially for being the smallest guy role. He did a good job here. Patty: I just do not get this character. It wasn't Kemp's fault at all, it's the character. I do not understand why she is in this play! She has spontaneous opinions that don't really go anywhere. That being said, I think Kemp did a great job with such a weird part handed to her, though her acting seemed a little too.... stale, I guess, but otherwise, good. So that's that. My biggest beef, however, was with the layout of the play. Not the set or anything, but just a few things bugged me. It was almost like some basic acting principals were overlooked, such as backpeddling upstage to stay facing front and folding your arms for extended periods of time. Just little things like that really stuck out to me. Also, having never seen the original done before, I was expecting the music to be a little more peppy, I suppose. The music is set up for 8 year olds, and it needs to be faster. Other than that, I was pleasantly surprised. The Bard gives it 8/10. |
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