Thursday, March 16, 2017

Featured Live Music Artist of the Week - "You're A Good Man, Charlie Brown"



Featured Live Music Artist of the Week - The Cast of "You're A Good Man, Charlie Brown"

A little different, live music theater this time.  This feature goes out to the cast of "You're A Good Man, Charlie Brown" from Illiana Christian High School in Lansing, IL.

A comedy/musical performed by the Theater Club at Illiana Christian High School.  Though, you'd never guess these were high school students, even sitting in the 3rd row, you'd think you were watching professional actors and actresses - as well as professional makeup artists and prop designers and scene changers and directors - and the band in the orchestra pit.

It's one thing to get on stage and play fictitious human characters, as there is really no pre-defined "looks" of the characters, but to go on stage and have to play the iconic caricatures of Charles M Shulz is quite another thing.  Let's face it, the audience is expecting that big round head with 2 pieces of hair and goofy look - the heads that are larger than the bodies.  People know what Peanuts characters look like.  And guess what, real people don't look like that.

But, within minutes, it was easy to "see" the Charlie Brown characters due to the excellent performances by the actors and actresses.  Sure, they didn't have giant round heads, but they wore great costumes, and most importantly, they ACTED the part.  Charlie Brown was Charlie Brown, Snoopy was Snoopy, and Linus was Linus.  Even Pigpen actually walked around in a cloud of dust - no seriously, they managed to make sure he exuded dust when he appeared and disappeared. 

It was a musical, and the singing and dancing was phenomenal - again, it was hard to tell these were students and not professionals.  Strong voices across the entire range of songs.  Dance sequences that belonged at Radio City. 

Sitting close, one can really see what's going on - and none of the actors/actresses ever left character.  When their character sequenced to the background, they were still in character making facial expressions or hand gestures that were perfect for whatever was happening next to them on stage.  They understood that whenever they are on stage, no matter where on stage, they were still being watched.  It reached a point early on, where it felt more like watching the Peanuts kids in real life, than watching an actual play.  And that's a good thing.

Not to be overshadowed though, it's worth noting the excellent musical score coming from the "orchestra pit" as well as scenes and props painted and designed exactly with Peanuts in mind.  The stage crew that ran out in the dark, the Prop Ninjas, were amazing as they changed sets lightning fast - in the dark.

Excellent job by the co-student directors as well, who were given verbal kudos by the cast at the conclusion of the play.  Well earned.

This was quite a production from music to acting to sets to behind-the-scenes.  Impressive - simply impressive.



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