You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown is a musical comedy consisting of songs with music and lyrics by Clark Gesner. It was the first stage musical based on the Peanuts comic strip by Charles M. Schulz. The first stage performance of You're a Good Man Charlie Brown was in 1967, it was revived on Broadway in 1999, has been adapted for television and performed numerous times by amateur companies.
Performance history
Ten of Clark Gesner's songs for You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown were originally featured on a concept album.
The first stage performance of the musical took place Off-Broadway on March 12, 1967. It ran for one thousand five hundred and ninety-seven performances. The book was credited to John Gordon, although Clark Gesner said that "John Gordon" was not a real person but was instead a collective pen-name that covered himself, the cast and the production staff, all of them having contributed to the script.
You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown was revived on Broadway in 1971, running at the John Golden Theater with an entirely new cast. However, it closed after only fifteen previews and thirty-two regular performances.
A second Broadway revival came in 1999. The character of Patty from the original 1967 performance was replaced by Sally Brown. New dialogue was added by Michael Mayer and additional songs and orchestration by Andrew Lippa. The 1999 Broadway revival was nominated for four Tony Awards, winning two.
You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown has been adapted for television twice, as a Hallmark Hall of Fame] program which first aired on NBC in 1973 and as an animated television special which was first shown on CBS in 1985. The character of Patty was replaced by Sally Brown in the 1985 animated cartoon, as in the later Broadway revival.
Songs (1999 revival)
Act I
- Opening/You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown - Sung by the cast
- Schroeder - Sung by Lucy van Pelt (to the tune of Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata).
- My Blanket and Me - Sung by Linus van Pelt with the rest of the cast.
- The Kite - Sung by Charlie Brown with optional background by the rest of the cast.
- The Doctor Is In (Dr. Lucy) - Sung by Lucy van Pelt and Charlie Brown.
- Beethoven Day - Sung by Schroeder and the rest of the cast.
- The Book Report - Sung by the cast.
Act II
- The Red Baron - Sung by Snoopy.
- My New Philosophy - Sung by Sally Brown and Schroeder
- T-E-A-M (the Baseball Game) - Sung by the cast.
- Glee Club Rehearsal - Sung by the cast.
- Little Known Facts - Sung by Lucy van Pelt, Linus van Pelt and Charlie Brown.
- Suppertime - Sung by Snoopy.
- Happiness - Sumg by the cast.
- Bows - Sung by the cast, featuring a partial reprise of Happiness and You're a Good man, Charlie Brown.
The songs Queen Lucy and Peanuts Potpourri, which had featured in Act II in the 1967 production, were dropped for the 1999 revival.
Cast
Concept album
- Charlie Brown - Orson Bean
- Lucy van Pelt - Barbara Minkus
- Linus van Pelt - Clark Gesner
- Snoopy - Bill Hinnant
Original 1967 Off-Broadway production
- Charlie Brown - Gary Burghoff
- Lucy van Pelt - Reva Rose
- Linus van Pelt - Bob Balaban
- Schroeder - Skip Hinnant
- Patty - Karen Johnson
- Snoopy - Bill Hinnant
1999 Broadway revival
- Charlie Brown - Anthony Rapp
- Lucy van Pelt - Ilana Levine
- Linus van Pelt - B.D. Wong
- Schroeder - Stanley Wayne Mathis
- Sally Brown - Kristin Chenoweth
- Snoopy - Roger Bart