Morgan Douglas – Sports Editor
Audiences returned to the John Lyman Center for the Performing Arts, when the theatre department ran their first showings of, You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown, this past weekend.
he musical marked the department’s first production in front of a live audience since the COVID-19 pandemic, an overwhelmingly pleasing feeling to those involved in the production.
“It is extremely satisfying,” Sound engineer Nick Moran, a junior, said. “I missed this so much. I love doing this, it’s what I want to do as soon as I graduate. Something about live theatre is so different from streaming theatre. They are completely different reactions, it’s hard to describe just how awesome it is.”
Opening night was Friday at 8 p.m. and university students with valid student ID’s got in free. The show started a bit late, but the audience did not mind.
The part of Charlie Brown was played by Sebastian Cordero, a junior, while Alexina Cristante, a junior, played Chuck’s foe, Lucy.
auging by the audience’s reactions, Cordero put in a fine performance as Brown and Cristante, a music major, displayed her vocal talents to the crowd’s delight.
“This is my first real musical I’ve been to here at SCSU, and I’d definitely come back and see this show again, specifically,” Gary Robinson Jr said. “I really enjoyed it, I liked everything from the lights to the music, to the characters everything was funny and the set was nice and very colorful, I liked it a lot.”
The audience, for the most part, enjoyed it as well.
Linus was played by communications major Liam Welsh, a junior. About 20 minutes in, Linus began a song and dance number with his blanket and talked about thumb sucking. Seconds later, the whole cast came out and danced with their blankets.
Not long after, Charlie tried to fly a kite after his sister, Sally, played by theatre major Nicole Thomas, a junior, complained to her school teacher about a coat hanger project.
Snoopy, played by psychology major Keegan Smith, a senior, did a lot of stretching, sitting up, yawning and laying back down.
Snoopy did, however, perform a song solo which showcased his vocal range vocally, while endearing himself to the audience.
The mention of Beethoven resulted in the entire cast breaking out into song and dance again. A dance which was reportedly the most difficult to nail of the musical.
“It was just a lot of unison dancing and sometimes people had trouble seeing each other and making sure they were all on time,” Assistant choreographer Brenna Smith said.
They came out of intermission with the red baron scene, which was difficult to act out, as the set was stationary, and Snoopy is supposed to be flying in a doghouse plane.
After this scene, a baseball game followed, which ultimately turned into another song and dance.
Later, Lucy stole Linus’ blanket.
Snoopy tap-danced with Woodstock, played by psychology major Colleen Wilson, because Brown brought him food.
When the whole cast danced and sang about supper time, and the audience reached their highest pitch in response.
Charlie Brown found the red-haired girls chewed up pencil and cheered up. Now he is happy. The play ends and the audience applauds the cast.
Snoopy in particular got the loudest ovation, serving as much needed comic relief in a story centered around Charlie Brown who is upset and depressed with his ineptitude and inability.
“I would say, get ready for a very fun, action-packed show,” Robinson Jr. said. “Everything was moving really fast and I think that kept the audience on their toes and everything was kind of unpredictable, which was really good.”
Nobody in the cast flubbed their lines, everything went off without a hitch on the technological side, the audience did not set the seats on fire, nor did they heckle and walk out. The opening night was successful as far as those involved in the production are concerned.
“There was nothing that really went wrong,” Playbill coordinator Ryleigh Rivas said. “It started a little late, but no big mistakes, everything went well and definitely a decent turnout for the first show back after the pandemic.”
Performances of the musical will run from Thursday, Oct. 14 through Saturday, Oct. 16, with all shows starting at 8 p.m., as well as a matinee showing on Saturday at 2 p.m.
“It’s hard to quantify the success of this,” Moran said, “but I think the crowd enjoyed it, I enjoyed it, everybody did everything to the best of their abilities, and I think that’s a success.”
