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You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown

Extras

Four years ago, having just performed Stephen Sondheim's A Little Night Music and being about to begin rehearsals for The Importance of Being Earnest, the usual discussion came about with regard to 'which musical do we do next summer?'

We spontaneously decided to spend a happy evening listening to CDs of musicals, old and new, with a view to choosing, when someone said: 'Did you know there was a musical based on 'Peanuts'?'

Some of us had heard, vaguely, of a show, but when the soundtrack for 'Snoopy! The Musical' was played for us that night, each and every person present knew that it had to be done.

But it was unsuitable material for what we considered to be the 'big' summer musical. It only had a cast of seven. So. What to do with it? And then some bright spark said: 'Hey! We've got seven weeks before we start the next play. Why don't we do it now?' Our seventh show, with a cast of seven, in seven weeks. Rehearsals were manic.

Eighteen hours every weekend. But we pulled it off, and pulled it off well. We actually took it to two venues, Portsmouth Arts Centre and the Station Theatre on Hayling Island. HumDrum were touring! During this time our research had pointed out that 'Snoopy!' had been preceded in 1967 by another show based on Schulz' characters, but the thought of revisiting them at that time was unthinkable. The sheer amount of work involved in 'Snoopy!' had been exhausting, and none of us wanted to face that again. Not then, anyway.

And now? Well, now we're all four years older. Two of the cast members of that last show have left us, but then their characters don't appear in this new piece. And Woodstock, that stalwart friend of Snoopy's, fell pregnant (the actress, you understand, not the character) and has had to be replaced, but for those of you who came with us last time to that place inhabited by Schulz' ageless children, there are some familiar faces in some familiar roles. It has again been hard work - but we at least granted ourselves a whole week extra in the rehearsal room this time.