I was in this play in high school, as just one of the random background chorus kids (I can’t sing, but I can act. Drama club being what it was, they weren’t about to let a senior like myself not be in the last musical of his tenure - we did a musical one semester, then a play the next.)
It was a LOT of fun rehearsing for this. My favorite memory is rehearsing “T-E-A-M (The Baseball Game)” except, without warning, the kid playing Charlie Brown (my best friend), instead of starting “Gimme a T!” started with “Gimme an M!” and proceeded to spell out “MEAT.” We then sang the lines “There is no meat/like the best meat/which is our meat/ right HERE!” while we all (boys and girls) gestured at our groins.
This was a Catholic school, but our drama teachers were cool. They stopped things pretty quickly, but got a good laugh about it to, and warned us of consequences if the nuns ever saw us doing that.
Never seen the play, but in high school (late 70s), I borrowed the album of the off-Broadway show from my school library constantly and listened to it over and over. (This was the album with Gary Berghoff playing Charlie Brown). Hearing “bombast” connected with the current version worries me – I’d always envisioned it as a minimalist production. IAC, I see the 1967 album I mentioned is on Amazon, so I’m going to order the CD.
That Kristen Chenowith video was absolutely adorable. Thanks for posting it, kenobi 65.
This show was my first experience of high school theater. I was in sixth grade when the high schoolers came to our elementary and did bits of it in the gym. Sitting on that cold floor, scrunched in close to my classmates (and staring at the back of Brandon’s neck - I had such a crush on him), I got chills over and over and just knew I’d be in the musicals when I was older. I got my parents to bring me to the show, and I absolutely loved it.
Due to my shitty memory, I don’t actually remember anything about the show. I doubt I’d even recognize the songs if I heard them out of context. But the general feeling was powerful.
Possibly I heard this soundtrack too many times as a child, because now I can’t listen to a plain performance of the sonata without hearing Lucy’s vocals in my mind.
