‘Peanuts’ comes alive in school musical

A boy, his pet beagle and a slew of animated characters are a few of the components students at the Evangelical Christian School melded together during their production of “Snoopy: The Musical.”

The show, which ran this week, brought the schools most talented actors before an audience to sing, dance, and keep true to the “Peanuts” comic strip characters.

“Snoopy is a challenging play on its own because they have to meld the sarcasm of an adult but also the innocence of a child,” said Tammy Madden, the musical director, noting that adult actors bring a different perspective to characters that are usually played by children.

The school’s most challenging task, Madden said, was finding a play that would appeal to all ages especially the elementary students that represent a large portion of the schools population.

“We wanted something everybody could enjoy and participate in” Madden said about the show that students auditioned for in November.

In previous years, thespians have played characters from “Beauty and the Beast” and “Seussical,” a Dr. Seuss musical.

“We have worked very hard and everytime it seems like you can’t pull it off but we still perform an excellent show,” said Gracey Hulbert, 18, a senior who was cast to play Snoopy. “People expect the Snoopy they grew up with so I worked hard to capture him as the writers intended.”

Hulbert has played the lead role in the last three spring productions but said Snoopy was as difficult to play as any other character.

“It was hard because first I’m a girl playing a dog but also a boy dog,” said Hulbert about the musical that is full of randomly placed scenes that are full of laughs and life lessons.

Being able to bring the animated characters to life before an audience kept students on a strict rehearsal schedule that included five day a week rehearsals and four script rewrites.

The 50 member cast received the final script just two weeks before opening night.

“We’ve had a large cast this year but it’s been very nice and we are all very close,” said Lauren Todd, 16, the only sophomore in the play.

Todd auditioned to play Lucy and got the role because it fit well with her personality.

“I’m not annoying but I can be bossy at times,” said Todd who admitted to having trouble re-memorizing the lines as the script changed. “It’s a great show and I’ve been really excited to do it.”