The musical “You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown” is now playing at the Little Theatre at the Nasson Community Center in Springvale. (That’s how the English spell it!) This presentation is by the Our Theatre Company, whose artistic director is Marc Ciaraldi, assisted by his gifted “partners-in-crime” Bob Pete and Cathy King. The show is based on the long running comic strip “Peanuts” by Charles M. Schulz and the book, music and lyrics are by Clark Gesner. (Additional dialogue is by Michael Mayer and additional music and lyrics are by Andrew Lippa). The beloved characters include Sally Brown, Linus (with his blanket), the music-loving Schroeder, the adventurous Snoopy, the crabby Lucy and the “everfailing, ever-determined Charlie Brown.”

The show takes one back to experience an “average day” in the life of Charlie Brown. There are two performances weekly, one on Friday evening and one on Saturday evening with different casts on each night. I caught the opening performance on Friday night and since I was unable to attend the Saturday night performance, my observations reflect only on the Friday night cast. The show is a series of miniature scenes that depict events in the life of Charlie Brown.

The opening number features the entire company performing the theme song, “You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown.” Aside from the six principals there is a company of fifteen mostly younger performers.

They sing well, even when the instruments do not play, and they move well, singly and collectively.

The credit for these factors must go to Mr. Ciaraldi. It has been my experience, beginning in 2011, that these positive achievements are usually the rule rather than the exception. After the opening number there is a scene with Lucy (Emily Morris) and Schroeder (Avery Dyer). Vocally and visually they are opposites. Morris is perpetually frantic, even frenetic and Dyer is cool and even restrained. I recall one line that remained with me: “One should never discuss marriage with a musician,” spoken ever so clearly by Dyer. While her voice is not robust, she always sings her part in tune. In the song “Snoopy” (Megan Daudelin) as well as in other songs, her warm megawatt personality overcomes some lapses in intonation. Linus is endearing in his song “My Blanket and Me” and in this song and the one that follows (The Kite) the company is shown off to brilliant advantage. I recall the imaginative use of red clouds by the company in this song as well as the effective singing by Charlie Brown (Dustin Niehoff) who does his best to portray the hapless Brown.

In the second act, Sally Brown (Emma Flores) shows off her winning personality in singing “My New Philosophy” in her duet with Schroeder. I particularly enjoyed the “Baseball Game” with Charlie Brown and the entire company. I thought that having the letters from TEAM spelled out as the company was giving it their all spelling T-EA M was eye catching. While the red-haired girl (Hailey Maynes), who was Charlie’s undoing, had no lines, her facial expressions needed no words. Ms. Morris as Lucy was at her best in “Little Known Facts” which followed the comical song “Glee Club Rehearsal.”

The show concluded with the melodic “Happiness Is,” sung by the entire company. It was good to see the fine results achieved by so many young and talented singer-actors. The show continues at Nasson through Sept. 5, Friday and Saturday evenings at 7 p.m. The Our Theatre Company is a nonprofit company pending 501c3.

— Dr. Gold is a composer/conductor and an arts reviewer for the Journal Tribune.

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