Hills Musical Company Stages YOU'RE A GOOD MAN, CHARLIE BROWN, Now thru May 9

Adelaide's Award winning Hills Musical Company will present a new production of the Tony Award winning musical, YOU'RE A GOOD MAN, CHARLIE BROWN in the Stirling Community Theatre, Stirling from today 24 April through until Saturday 9 May for nine performances only.

YOU'RE A GOOD MAN, CHARLIE BROWN will be directed by Hayley Horton with musical direction by Peter Johns and choreography by Vanessa Redmond.

With original book, music and lyrics by Clark Gesner YOU'RE A GOOD MAN, CHARLIE BROWN is drawn from the famous comic strip Peanuts by Charles M. Schulz which ran continuously from 1950 to 2000. At its peak, Peanuts ran in over 2,600 newspapers, with a readership of 355 million in 75 countries, and was translated into 21 languages. The strip was one of the most popular and influential in the history of the medium, and considered the most beloved comic strips of all time. In total 17,897 different Peanuts strips were published.

YOU'RE A GOOD MAN, CHARLIE BROWN is a musical romp with the Peanuts gang Charlie Brown (played by Gareth Wilkes), Sally Brown (Mim Sarre), Snoopy (Fahad Farooque), Linus (Buddy Dawson), Lucy (Amy Nagesh) and Schroeder (Omkar Nagesh) through an average day in the life of Charlie Brown, as he tries to discover what it means to be a good man. Although he has many things to do, including feeding a dog and writing a book report on Peter Rabbit, Charlie manages to discover the answer with the help of his friends.

Director Hayley Horton says the show is suitable for the whole family. 'Children will love it because it's fun and colourful, while adults will enjoy it because of Schulz's dry wit and the show's way of highlighting human traits through the voices of children.'

First performed on Broadway in 1967 YOU'RE A GOOD MAN, CHARLIE BROWN ran for almost 1600 performances. The show was given a major Broadway revival in 1998 by the authors and producers of the original production.

That revival, with additional dialogue by Michael Mayer additional music and lyrics by Andrew Lippa played in 1999 on Broadway collecting two Tony Awards and three Drama Desk Awards.

The 1999 revival added two new songs, Beethoven Day and My New Philosophy, to the twelve numbers of the original version, such as My Blanket and Me, The Kite, The Baseball Game, Little Known Facts, Suppertime and Happiness.

Clark Gesner says, 'None of the cast is actually six years old. And they don't really look like Charles Schulz' Peanuts cartoon characters. But this doesn't seem to make that much difference once we are into the play, because what they are saying to each other is with the openness of that early childhood time, and the obvious fact is that they are all really quite fond of each other.'

The Hills Musical Company (HMC) was formed in 1972 to make use of the Stirling Institute which was then mostly an unused building, and under threat of demolition. The HMC began performances in 1973 with "Kiss Me Kate".

Since then, HMC has produced two shows per year. Amongst Man of La Mancha, Guys and Dolls, West Side Story, Mame, 42nd Street, Jekyll and Hyde, A Chorus Line, Cabaret and Blood Brothers to name just a few. Many of their recent productions have gone on to win awards such as 'Best Actor', 'Best Choreographer' and 'Best Musical'.

With the continued success of their productions, HMC is able to up-grade the beautiful and historic Stirling Community Theatre.

Tickets for YOU'RE A GOOD MAN, CHARLIE BROWN may be purchased online at www.hillsmusical.org.au or by phone 0466 118 153 or purchase from the Box Office one hour before the performance. Adult: $32; Concession: $28; Child (15 and under): $22; Groups (8 or more): $25 ea. YOU'RE A GOOD MAN, CHARLIE BROWN plays 23 April (preview at 8pm), 24, 25 April at 8pm, 1, 2, 8, 9 May at 8pm, and 2, 3, 9 May at 2pm.