You're A Good Man, Charlie Brown - MESH (See it if you like FUN!)

MESH are not just Perth’s only Youth Musical Theatre Company...they also appear to have the market cornered in terms of providing entertainment that is bright, fun, energetic and the theatrical equivalent of fairy floss. Last year they performed THE WEDDING SINGER, a musical that both honoured and spoofed the eighties in an hilarious and enjoyable manner...this year, they kick off their season with YOU’RE A GOOD MAN, CHARLIE BROWN, a musical based on Charles M. Schulz’s Peanuts comic strip. Like THE WEDDING SINGER, it boasts a terrific cast of young musical performers, bursts with wide-eyed energy from the first number to the last, and leaves the audience on a complete sugar high! The set, while simple, is colourful and evocative of the original comic strip, and frames a broad playing area which the cast use to maximum effect. The show, which depicts a day in the life of Charlie Brown, has no real story – instead presenting a series of sketches that play like a compilation of Schulz’s finest individual comic strips. The cast grab a hold of this concept immediately and run with it, keeping the pace firing along at breakneck speed and turning a collection of small scenes into a coherent show. Andrew Gould played the title character with just the right mixture of happiness and hopelessness, his unflagging innocence endearing him to the audience. His strong voice gave the show a marvellous vocal core. Morgan Phillips, as Linus, demonstrated superb comic timing and shared incredible chemistry with his inanimate blanket, singing and dancing with flair. James Traill, playing Schroeder, sang well and rounded out a delightfully strong male cohort. However, it was the girls of the show who really had me screaming last night...no disrespect to the boys, as these ladies were given some of the most brilliant material in the show :-) Phoebe Jackson’s energy never faltered as the brash, “crabby” Lucy. Whenever she was onstage, she completely commanded it, as Lucy naturally would. Her voice was splendid, but the real revelation was her comic timing and endlessly enjoyable facial expressions. Briannna Williams might seem an unconventional choice for the role of Snoopy, but she pulled it off very well, and gave the major vocal performance of the evening in her high-belting rendition of “Suppertime”...brilliant. The star of the show, in my eyes, was Amberly Cull. In her first community theatre performance, she shone. Adorable and hilarious, almost every line she delivered was met with a laugh, and her song “My New Philosophy” was one of the show’s comic highlights. For a performer to be so polished, so early in her career, suggests that big things are in store for this young lady down the road. Keep an eye on her :-) The ensemble also deserve a mention for their contribution to this show; Emmet Nichols brought the 3-D craze currently sweeping the motion picture world into theatres last night, with his incredible and terrifying “kite work”...watch it to believe it, but don’t sit too close!!! Kimberley Harris had one line...a line of complete gibberish, no less...but it brought the house down. And Louisa Fitzhardinge was adorably sweet as the Cute Little Red-Headed Girl. Musically the show was superbly handled by Timothy How – the harmonies were strong, no cast members struggled vocally and the band held together throughout. A great achievement. Also to be congratulated is Renae O’Neill, for her choreography that stylistically remained true to the fact that the cast were playing children, but still employed the use of some nice shapes and movement to remain impressive. Belinda Flindell and Iskandar Sharazuddin have done a great job putting this show onstage, and for anyone who is tossing up whether to go and see it, I would strongly recommend it. You are certain to have fun, and laugh at least once if not a hundred times! Support WA’s ONLY YOUTH MUSICAL THEATRE COMPANY so that it has the means to continue producing shows of the calibre we have seen in their last two.