You're A Good Man Charlie Brown @ St Augustine's

Peanuts, featuring the famous Snoopy and Charlie Brown, was perhaps the most popular and influential cartoon in the history of the comic strip, running just short of 50 years. Who knew it would make it to stage as a musical?

The script, embracing all the sardonic existential angst and absurdist humour we have come to associate with these characters, takes a sketch-show format rather reminiscent of the comic book from which it derived – and no doubt many derive from actual strips. Naturally, this sometimes works better than others, but what really shines out here are the performances.  EUSOG really pull it off with finesse! Charlie is suitably self-deprecating and well chosen as a lead, Lucy cutting, Linus philosophical, Schroeder aloof, but the show stopping performance came from Kirsty Findlay who inhabited the capricious Sally Brown with unparalled zest through tone, body language and facial expression.

As a feature of the writing, the songs are always warm and welcome as a source of continuity in amongst skits: Well sung, the voices blend beautifully in harmony, the choreography too leaves much to delight the eye.  On the whole the execution of the material often outstrips its content between them.