‘Charlie Brown’ stars many young actors

Based on Charles Schulz’s classic “Peanuts” comic strip, the award-winning musical “You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown” opens Thursday at Everett Performing Arts Center.

Told through a series of songs and vignettes that mimic the four-panel format used by the original cartoon strip, the Village Theatre Kidstage production is a revival of the 1999 musical that received two Tony Awards. The revival version has been updated and re-orchestrated with four-part harmonies and pop rhythms.

“It’s a fun score,” director Kati Nickerson said in press materials. “The revival is very upbeat and has two new numbers. One of them, ‘Beethoven Day’ is a large, full-ensemble piece with a gospel feel. It will be a show-stopper.”

In addition, Sally, Charlie Brown’s little sister, is a new character since the original production and has her own song, “My New Philosophy.”

The show is written for six actors, so Nickerson developed a concept that involves 51 young performers. The six principal roles of Charlie Brown, Lucy, Schroeder, Linus, Snoopy and Sally are each played by three actors. The set follows the comic-strip concept using three 8-by-8-foot frames, allowing all three actors for each principal character to create a live comic strip.

There is also a Beagle Scout Ensemble made up of second- and third-graders. Ten of the youngest players follow Woodstock and play the roles of the little birds, often represented as Snoopy’s Scouts.

The production has three student directors, two student choreographers, a student music director and a student assistant stage manager from Village Theatre’s Teen Access to Professionals program.

“You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown” features 51 fourth- to ninth-grade students with a selection of second- and third-grade students in a full-scale musical. The production runs through April 20.

“Social Security”: Whidbey Playhouse continues its 42nd season with a delightful adult-themed comedy, “Social Security,” opening tonight in Oak Harbor.

The play focuses on trendy Manhattan art gallery owners Barbara and David Kahn, whose lives are upended when Barbara’s sister, Trudy, deposits their eccentric, sourball-spitting mother, Sophie, on the couple’s doorstep while she and her husband head to Buffalo to rescue their sexually precocious college student. Barbara and David introduce Sophie to a suave nonagenarian artist who offers to paint her portrait and soon begins to brighten her life in ways she never expected in her twilight years.

The play, by Andrew Bergman, continues weekends through April 26.

“The Cure at Troy”: Seattle Repertory Theatre teams up with Nobel Prize-winning poet Seamus Heaney and director Tina Landau to bring the Trojan War to life in “The Cure at Troy,” through May 3.

The fate of a raging war rests on one treacherous plan. Odysseus discovers the only way to guarantee a victory over the Trojans is by using the bow and arrow of the god Hercules. But the weapon just happens to be in the hands of Philoctetes, a wounded soldier Odysseus abandoned on a wretched, muddy island 10 years earlier.

“Doubt, A Parable”: Taproot Theatre Company offers sneak peek of the Pulitzer Prize-winning play “Doubt, A Parable” Monday in Seattle.

The Pulitzer- and Tony Award-winning play by John Patrick Shanley probes the mystery of uncertainty as a parochial school principal sets out to prove wrongdoing in a case for which she has no concrete evidence.

The free program begins at 7 p.m. at Greenwood Library, 8016 Greenwood Ave. N. in Seattle’s Greenwood neighborhood.

Taproot’s mainstage production of “Doubt, A Parable” opened March 26 and continues through April 26.

“The Beaux’ Stratagem”: Ghost Light Theatricals tonight opens an all-female version of George Farquhar’s 1707 comedy.

When two gentlemen squander their fortunes, they seek refuge in the English countryside, assuming false identities to woo and marry wealthy ladies. They soon find out that they are not the only ones with devious plans.

“Forever Plaid”: Four young, eager male singers are killed in a car crash in the 1950s on their way to their first big concert. Miraculously revived for their chance to perform the show that never was, the Plaids are a smash with the beloved songs of that era in “Forever Plaid,” a musical by Stuart Ross sung in the close harmony of the ’50s, which opens tonight at Anacortes Community Theatre. The production runs through May 3.

Where to see it

“You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown”: Opens at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Everett Performing Arts Center, 2710 Wetmore Ave., Everett. Other shows at 7:30 p.m. April 11, 12, 17 and 19, and at 2 p.m. April 20. $9 to $11, 425-257-8600, www.villagetheatre.org.

“Social Security”: Opens at 7:30 tonight, Whidbey Playhouse, 730 SE Midway Blvd., Oak Harbor. Runs through April 26. Tickets $14, 360-679-2237, www.whidbeyplayhouse.com.

“The Cure at Troy”: 7:30 p.m. Tuesdays through Sundays with 2 p.m. matinees Saturdays and Sundays through May 3, Bagley Wright Theatre, Seattle Center. Official opening night Wednesday; no performance April 10. Tickets $15 to $59, 206-443-2222, 877-900-9285, www.seattlerep.org.

“Doubt, a Parable”: Sneak peek at 7 p.m. Monday, Greenwood Library, 8016 Greenwood Ave. N., Seattle. Free. Mainstage production at various times through April 26, Taproot Theatre, 204 N. 85th St., Seattle. Tickets $20 to $33, 206-781-9707, www.taproottheatre.org.

“The Beaux’ Stratagem”: Opens at 7:30 tonight, TPS Theatre4, 305 Harrison St., Seattle Center. Runs at various times through April 20. Tickets $12, $10 at the door or online at www.brownpapertickets.com/event/30681.

“Forever Plaid”: Opens at 8 tonight, Anacortes Community Theatre, 918 M Ave., Anacortes. Runs at various times through May 3. Tickets $16, 360-293-6829.

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