Much like his eternal youth, the character of Charlie Brown is timeless. For nearly 70 years, the kid with the striped yellow shirt and his friends have made generation after generation laugh along with their relatable struggles against a world that’s so often difficult to understand. Throughout September, the Williamsburg Players intend to bring Charlie Brown to life with their latest production, “You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown.”
“Charlie Brown is in all of us,” said director Valerie Chamness Chin, who emphasized the character’s often humorous affinity for failure. “We can laugh at it because we recognize it in ourselves. I think that makes it easier to deal with.”
The Broadway musical proved an easy choice for Chin, who is working with the Players for the first time. They handed her a list of options, and the tale following a day in the life of Charlie Brown stood out.
“That was the one that I knew right away, I could make a show out of this,” said Chin, who also works as a performer at Colonial Williamsburg and has experience teaching and directing theater students in schools across the country.
Peanuts creator Charles Schulz’s brand of simple, relatable humor drew her to the production, and it was her top priority during the casting process.
“First of all, they had to be funny,” she said. “That’s the whole point of a comic strip.”
The cast’s talent for balancing humor with the show’s more emotional beats quickly became clear during auditions.
“The casting was really easy because the talent made itself really apparent,” she said. “It’s not always about talent; it’s about who fits. These guys have both. They are hilarious and amazing.”
A dream come true
That need for talent extended to tackling the play’s musical numbers.
“The music is not simple,” said Joshua Daniels, who plays the titular character. He emphasized the nuances in the vocals and the instrumental parts. “It is deceptively complex.”
For Daniels, the Players’ latest production represents the opportunity to take on a dream role.
“The role of Charlie Brown has been on my theatrical bucket list for a very, very long time,” he said. He added that growing up as an outsider, someone who didn’t have a knack for sports and the like, ensured the character resonated deeply with him. “I kind of grew up as Charlie Brown. I’m very excited to get to do it.”
Daniels, a graduate of New York City’s American Musical and Dramatic Academy who also worked as a Colonial Williamsburg interpreter, made sure to highlight the play’s other roles as well.
“There is not a bad role in this show,” he said. “They’re all so much fun. Every character gets some wonderful storytelling opportunities.”
Daniels noted the cast is comprised predominately of millennials, underscoring the intergenerational appeal of the Peanuts gang. He said that was an intent his director made clear throughout the process.
“She’s trying to bring out the fact that this is not a kid’s show,” he said, comparing it to the likes of timeless Disney classics and the broad humor of The Muppets. “This is a family show. It’s just as appealing to adults as it is to children.”
Chin also aims to pay homage to Charlie Brown’s comic-strip origins with the set design.
“We really wanted it to feel like a comic book world,” she said. That includes two-dimensional trees and clouds accompanied by an abundance of vibrant primary colors.
It’s a prop-heavy show. In one sequence, Linus’ beloved blanket takes flight to a musical number while the character dances along with it. Chin commissioned some of the actors to contribute props for their characters, too; she asked Holly Rice, who plays Sally, to make her character’s coat hanger art project herself.
Woodstock, Snoopy’s yellow bird sidekick, is portrayed as an abstract burst of feathers on strings, a mobile controlled by a stick. There’s also a flying sequence involving the dog and his old nemesis, the Red Baron, both in their iconic World War I fighter jets.
“I will just say we are putting our special effects people through the ringer,” Chin said.
As with any creative process, she said new ideas are popping up and evolving constantly on the road to the premiere. The work has seen changes since its initial run in 1967, with some of the jokes updated to be more relevant for a modern audience. Two songs were also added in the time since its debut. But Chin, who extensively researched the history and canon of Peanuts in preparation for the production, wants to stay true to the heart behind Schulz’s characters.
“The characters represent different things within ourselves. The problems of childhood fade away, but the emotions that go along with failure don’t,” she said, aiming for a production that’s not only funny, but also honest. “Kids don’t have a problem laying their emotions bare.”
Want to go?
“You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown” runs Sept. 7-9, 14-16 and 21-23 at the James-York Playhouse, 200 Hubbard Lane. Tickets are $20 for adults and $12 for students and children,. For more information or to purchase tickets, call 229-0431 or visit williamsburgplayers.org.
Birkenmeyer can be reached by phone at 757-790-3029.
