Charlie Brown at SFCM
April 18, 2009
* Notes *
Last night the Musical Theatre Ensemble of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music gave a student performance of You're A Good Man, Charlie Brown, which they will repeat tonight with a different cast. The performance certainly was heartfelt and sweet. The vocalists used microphones, as to be heard over the instrumentation, which, at times, involved electric bass, saxophone, and rather heavy percussion. The simple staging was suited to the venue, and the choreography was very good, though not perfectly together. The musical itself is a bit too kitschy in the wrong sort of way, it has all the earnestness of Schultz's Peanuts, but is somehow not as poignant.
* Tattling *
The audience did talk and text during the performance, but was for the most part fairly well-behaved. At the end of the performance, the stage directors came out and danced with the students, and Michael Mohammed did 555 95472's moves convincingly.