When I first saw the Broadway musical You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown, I thought it was based on the movie. However, after watching a behind-the-scenes look on my You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown (the movie) DVD, I learned that it's actually the other way around. Last spring, the same high school I attended put on the same play. My family and I went to see it, and we all enjoyed it very much! It was the best play I've ever seen, and I was fortunate enough to get all the main characters' autographs. Although I finished high school 2 years ago and completed my second year in community college recently, if my high school had performed the play while I was there, I would have wanted to participate. I would have liked to play either Charlie Brown, Linus, or Snoopy. I already have the right attire to play Linus: the red and black striped shirt, the black pants, and even the blue blanket, so nobody would've had to create or purchase a Linus costume for me. Just to clarify, I first watched this before I knew about the play, and the play isn't the reason I like it.
The plot is a typical day in the life of Charlie Brown, with little moments from Valentine's Day to the baseball season, from wild optimism to utter despair, all mixed in the lives of his friends. This is a love letter to Charlie Brown, hence the title, which makes me like this even more! The other characters show more appreciation for him than usual, and they even sing about it at the beginning. To put more bread on the table, at the end he says it hasn't been such a bad day after all and how much better his friends have made his life. Above all else, Charlie Brown is resilient, persistent, and never fails to get up and try again.
If you've seen this before, you know that Snoopy talks in this, just like the play, but all his dialogue and singing is from his thoughts, and the humans can't hear him, so he's technically still nonverbal, which makes the idea of him talking even better. That, and he still does his signature laugh and growl, although some might argue that this contradicts his character. I don't know what else to say about it.
The play brings to life many favorite gags from the comic strip, such as Charlie Brown flying a kite, losing baseball games, Lucy's obsession with Schroeder, Snoopy's obsession with suppertime, and more, all presented through well-written songs with beautiful music that truly captures the essence of the original strip. My favorite song is "Happiness," the last song in both the TV movie and the play. It's a soft, relaxing, and beautiful song that always makes me feel emotional.
There is one thing I don't like about this: Lucy's song, Little Known Facts because the lyrics consist entirely of inaccurate facts that Lucy is trying to teach Linus, like we eat eagles on Thanksgiving and Christmas, snow comes up, bugs make grass grow, fire hydrants give us water to drink, and more. That's why I give this a 9/10. I can't blame Charlie Brown for scowling at her, trying to correct everything, and banging his head up against a tree at the end of the song. Overall, this is the best non-holiday Peanuts special, and if you're a big Peanuts fan like me, you should check this out, and the play too if possible.
