Last Thursday, 17 July, Peg and I went to the theater. The Princeton Summer Theater was putting on "You're A Good Man Charlie Brown," and was having a special opening night tribute to the author/composer/lyricist of the play, Clark Gesner (Princeton class of '60), who died about a year ago. Peggy and I knew Clark -- I first met him about 22 years ago, and Peggy met him the first time I took her to the Princeton campus. Because our circles didn't often intersect, we were actually somewhere between acquaintances and friends, but he was always happy to see us, and always willing to chat for a while when we ran into each other. We both miss him quite a bit.
In any case, maudlin reminiscing aside, the show was a very good production. One wild, daring act of casting: a girl with a voice like Didi Conn was playing Snoopy, and did a fantastic job. They didn't hide the fact she was female, and had changed all the relevant pronouns in the script to "she" and "her" -- this was most explicitly an alternate Peanuts universe where Snoopy was female. This didn't change much except... well, Snoopy has always been mildly flirty with the girls in the strip and to a lesser degree in the play; however, in this production, the flirtiness got aimed at the male characters, which was just a little... odd, until you got used to it.
Anyway, if you're in the Princeton NJ area, and it's still running when you read this, consider going to see the show. Tell'em a friend of Clark's sent you.
Anyway, on to the titular fic idea. This came less from the play than from one of the prop/set pieces -- Lucy's psychiatry booth. I remembered a scene from one of the cartoons, where a coin was dropped in her jar, and she spent several minutes shaking it and rhapsodizing on the money and the sound it made... and I thought, "you know, that's so very Nabiki."
I thought about it for much of the first act, then discussed the idea with Peg at intermission. We argued a bit over the implementation (Peggy retracting her objections to one of my suggestions when she saw the number "Suppertime"), and kept discussing it for a couple days afterward. I think the idea's settled down enough that I can throw this little teaser/concept up on the board for everyone's amusement.
You're A Good Man, Ryoga Brown
by Clark Gesner and Rumiko Takahashi
Dramatis Personae:
Ryoga Brown
Nabiki Van Pelt
Tatewaki Van Pelt
Peppermint Ukyou
Mousse Schroeder
Featuring Ranma Saotome as Snoopy, and "Ranko" Saotome as The Little Red-Headed Girl.
See Ryoga get depressed and go to Nabiki for advice.
See Nabiki plan to make enough money to buy herself a queendom.
See Tatewaki attempt to live without his bokken and fail miserably.
See Ranma cower in fear at the sight of the cat next door.
Thrill to such immortal dialogue as Peppermint Ukyou's "We had okonomiyaki at our house three times this week!" and Nabiki's "My aunt Marion was right. Never discuss marriage with a magician!"
Don't miss songs like Ryoga's "The Fight Song", Tatewaki's "My Bokken and Me", Ranma's big number "Suppertime", and the classic ensemble piece "Martial Arts is..."
Coming soon to an anime-Broadway martial arts fusion theatre near you.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.
In any case, maudlin reminiscing aside, the show was a very good production. One wild, daring act of casting: a girl with a voice like Didi Conn was playing Snoopy, and did a fantastic job. They didn't hide the fact she was female, and had changed all the relevant pronouns in the script to "she" and "her" -- this was most explicitly an alternate Peanuts universe where Snoopy was female. This didn't change much except... well, Snoopy has always been mildly flirty with the girls in the strip and to a lesser degree in the play; however, in this production, the flirtiness got aimed at the male characters, which was just a little... odd, until you got used to it.
Anyway, if you're in the Princeton NJ area, and it's still running when you read this, consider going to see the show. Tell'em a friend of Clark's sent you.
Anyway, on to the titular fic idea. This came less from the play than from one of the prop/set pieces -- Lucy's psychiatry booth. I remembered a scene from one of the cartoons, where a coin was dropped in her jar, and she spent several minutes shaking it and rhapsodizing on the money and the sound it made... and I thought, "you know, that's so very Nabiki."
I thought about it for much of the first act, then discussed the idea with Peg at intermission. We argued a bit over the implementation (Peggy retracting her objections to one of my suggestions when she saw the number "Suppertime"), and kept discussing it for a couple days afterward. I think the idea's settled down enough that I can throw this little teaser/concept up on the board for everyone's amusement.
You're A Good Man, Ryoga Brown
by Clark Gesner and Rumiko Takahashi
Dramatis Personae:
Ryoga Brown
Nabiki Van Pelt
Tatewaki Van Pelt
Peppermint Ukyou
Mousse Schroeder
Featuring Ranma Saotome as Snoopy, and "Ranko" Saotome as The Little Red-Headed Girl.
See Ryoga get depressed and go to Nabiki for advice.
See Nabiki plan to make enough money to buy herself a queendom.
See Tatewaki attempt to live without his bokken and fail miserably.
See Ranma cower in fear at the sight of the cat next door.
Thrill to such immortal dialogue as Peppermint Ukyou's "We had okonomiyaki at our house three times this week!" and Nabiki's "My aunt Marion was right. Never discuss marriage with a magician!"
Don't miss songs like Ryoga's "The Fight Song", Tatewaki's "My Bokken and Me", Ranma's big number "Suppertime", and the classic ensemble piece "Martial Arts is..."
Coming soon to an anime-Broadway martial arts fusion theatre near you.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.
