You're A Good Man, Charlie Brown, Wimberley Players, November 15 - December 8, 2013

by Michael Meigs


As fresh as the ink of the morning paper on a bright fall day, the Wimberley Players' staging of You're A Good Man, Charlie Brown is big, bold and beautiful. And so is the cast; director Jim Lindsay has handpicked some of the most attractive talent from the region.

Did you know that this musical by Clark Gesner is approaching its 50th birthday? You'd never know it from this production. The original version was done in 1967, and in 1998 performers using the revised script presented in this Wimberley production took two Tony awards. And Charlie Brown himself, if he weren't ageless, would be almost ready to qualify for Social Security, for Charles Schultz's first four-panel strip featuring him was published on October 2, 1950.

Ryley Wilson (photo: Leanne Brawner Photography)

A musical for six players, presented as a series of lively songs and skits featuring some of the most memorable tropes and plights of the Peanuts gang, the work is a favorite of high schools and amateur groups. Director Lindsay chose to expand the cast by two women to to calibrate the choreography, so Wimberley's augmented edition includes both that little red-headed girl (the fetching Lindsay Katherine Powell) and Kate Clark (Frieda, a fine singer and captain of the dance ensemble).

Schultz drew the comic strip for fifty years, so that tiny community of primary schoolers has a rich and diverse history of incident. The situations onstage are instantly recognizable and bring smiles to faces in the audience. 

 Ryley Wilson in the title role has Charlie's yellow shirt with the zig-zag, a fugitive kite, and that mild, yearning and baffled presence. Kristi Brawner as Lucy van Pelt is adorably heedless, loud and self-certain -- comically capturing childish speech and emphasis with her frequent prolongation of initial consonants ("You're a Buh-LOCKHEAD!")

Part of the pleasure of seeing mature but young actors in these roles is the irony of age difference: grown men are returned to the tentative innocents they once were, while the actresses giving Schultz's girls their endearing brashness are at the same time very attractive young women.

Click to read more at AustinLiveTheatre. . . .

NATIONAL PASTIME, a musical by Tony Sportiello and Al Tapper, Austin Theatre Project at Center Stage, September 19 - October 6, 2013

[






Austin Theatre Project, performing at Center Stage Texas, 2826 Real Street, south of Manor Rd. - CLICK FOR MAP]
 
presents

National Pastime

book by Tony Sportiello, music and lyrics by Al Tapper

directed by Barbara Schuler with music direction by David Blackburn

September 19 - October 6, 2013

Thursdays - Saturdays at 8 p.m., Sundays at 3 p.m.

Center Stage Texas, 2826 Real Street, south of Manor Rd. - click for map 

NATIONAL PASTIME takes place in Baker City, Iowa in 1933. As the country is coming out of the Great Depression, about the only business in Baker City that seems to be holding on (barely) is the radio station WZBQ. The last time they had made any kind of profit was before the Depression... when the team was home to the minor league baseball team, the Baker City Cougars. In order to save the station, the owners decide to broadcast Cougar baseball again... only there's no team to broadcast!

What do you do when decide to broadcast baseball without a team? Broadcast fake games of course! Incredibly, the entire scheme works and the station is rolling in the profits once again. All is well until a reporter from Life Magazine arrives to do a story on the incredible Iowa baseball team.
 
NATIONAL PASTIME features some of the best and brightest talent Austin has to offer. In the role of Barry, the station owner is Jim Lindsay ("Baby," "Blood Brothers," "Singin' in the Rain"). Haley Smith ("Baby," "I Love You Because") plays Karen, the Chicago attorney who arrives in Baker City to sell the station, but ends up fully immersed in the zany plot. Cast in the roles of station employees are Brandon Myers ("Blood Brothers," "Dirty Rotten Scoundrels"), Derek Smootz ("The Fantasticks", "Princess Ida"), Rachel Hoovler ("Avenue Q," "Rocky Horror Picture Show"), and Suzanne Orzech ("Baby," "Thoroughly Modern Millie"). In the roles of the bumbling mobster misfits are Erik Freisinger ("South Pacific", "A Few Good Men") and Matt Gauk ("Baby," "A Few Good Men"). Rounding out the exceptional cast is the jingle singing trio consisting of Kate Clark ("Princess Ida"), Wendy Jo Cox ("Baby", "South Pacific"), and Heather Anne Howes (making her Austin theatrical debut).
 
NATIONAL PASTIME features a book by Tony Sportiello and music & lyrics by Al Tapper. Back in March, Austin Theatre Project had a very special guest in the audience of the musical Edges. New York playwright Tony Sportiello had just spent the day with ATP founders Barbara Schuler and David Blackburn and was taking in the critically acclaimed show. As soon as the show finished, Sportiello pulled Schuler and Blackburn aside and raved about the talent on the stage and caliber of the production. He then offered ATP the first preview production of his musical NATIONAL PASTIME which is expected to open on Broadway in 2014.

The musical is being directed by Barbara Schuler with music direction by David Blackburn. Choreography is by Meg Steiner. The set is designed by David Blackburn with Sound and Lighting design by Joel Mercado-See and Dustin Downing. Technical director for the production is Jim Schuler.

(Click to go to the AustinLiveTheatre front page)