Your’re a Good Man,Charlie Brown. Book, Music & Lyrics by Clark Gesner. Upstairs at the Gatehouse, Highgate Village, London to 14 January 2024.

3***: William Russell.

“Snoopy steals the show.”

Snoopy steals the show in this Christmas offering of the 1999 revue based on the comic strip Peanuts by Charles M. Schulz done here in the revised 1999 version. When you get a song like Suppertime to sing dressed in a rhinestone covered jacket tap dancing and ending with a cartwheel it is probably impossible not to but Oliver Sidney does Snoopy very well indeed. He didn’t manage it earlier in the show with The Red Baron number but chances are that the audience did not quite get the Snoopy joke which is that he fancies himself as a First World War fighter ace flying on top of his kennel airplane.

The show is frequently revived and this version directed and choreographed by Amanda Noare with a five piece band under Harry Style doing justice to the score passes the time pleasantly. Jacob Cornish makes a nicely lugubrious Linus who needs his blanket for support, Troy Yip bursts with energy as Schroeder and the girls are suitably monstrous. As always the show started off with the words getting muffled – revue needs clarity if it is to work and miking people always means that they are not projecting to the auditorium but relying on the sound engineer. As the show progressed the sound got better as Phil Stannard, the sound designer did whatever he had to do to fix things. It is nobody’s fault just that would be musical performers these days are taught to sing miked which does not always result in the words getting the attention they deserve and demand. The whole point about revue, a lost art form, is that the words matter and back in the days there were no such aids to projecting one’s voice. Jordan Broatch makes a decent stab at being Charlie but is actually rather too tall for the part and their hair style simply does not fit the time or place – get it cut. Charlie, a victim of bossy women and an independent minded dog, should be small not lanky. The production passes the time pleasantly enough, however, brings up memories of the much loved comic strip, and, provided one was a fan, makes a good Christmas outing. Pantomime it is not. Children’s show it is not. A musical it is not. It is a pleasant addition to the long list of superb Gatehouse Christmas musicals and that cartwheel alone is worth the ticket price.

Cast

Jordan Broatch – Charlie Brown.

Millie Robins – Sally Brown.

Oliver Sidney – Snoopy.

Troy Yip - Schroeder.

Jacob Cornish – Linus Van Pelt.

Eleanor Fransch – Lucy Van Pelt.

Creatives

Director & Choreographer – Amanda Noar.

Musical Director – Harry Style.

Set Designer – Ruby Boswell-Green.

Costume Designer – Holly Louise Chapman.

Lighting Designer – Jan Watson.

Sound Designer – Phil Stannard.