Theatre Register

Clark Gesner

Shows · Clark Gesner

ComposerLyricistBook Writer 1938–2002

Clark Gesner (March 27, 1938 – July 23, 2002) was an American composer, songwriter, author, and actor. He is best known for composing the musical You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown, based on the Charles M. Schulz comic strip Peanuts. None of his other musicals (most notably The Utter Glory of Morrissey Hall in 1979) had been able to match the success of ...Charlie Brown, though he had small success in regional productions (mostly Animal Fair in 1990). Gesner's song "Happiness" became a hit standard in the 1960s, being recorded by various artists. The latter was also recorded in a smooth jazz version by David Benoit in May 2000, shortly after Charles M. Schulz's death, on an album entitled Here…

Also credited on2 works

You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown
You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown

These come off the person record, which names a work and not a production. So we can say this name is attached to the work and we cannot say which staging, or in what capacity. For a composer or a writer that is the whole career we hold; there is no cast list to find them in.

In the literature8 passages

  • With Charles Schultz’s appealing comic strip “Peanuts” as general inspiration, Clark Gesner created a musical out of events in “a day made up of little moments picked from all the days of Charlie Brown, from Valentine’s Day to the baseball season, from wild optimism to utter despair, all mixed with the lives of his friends (both human and…ebooks/Green, Stanley/Broadway Musicals, Show By Show - Seventh Edition - Stanley Green & Cary Ginell.txt
  • John Gordon; music and lyrics: Clark Gesner. Musicalcomedy revue based on the comic strip "Peanuts" by Charles M. Schulz. The story is about an average day in the life of Charlie Brown and his friendstheatre-pdfs/McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of World Drama, v. 3 (I-N).txt
  • music and lyrics by Ronny Graham, June (Sillman) Carroll, Arthur Siegel, Clark Gesner, Sam Pottle, David Axelrod, Jerry Powell,theatre-pdfs/More Opening Nights on Broadway - Steven Suskin.txt
  • write English musicals—now a couple of Americans, Clark Gesner and Nagle Jackson, have practically convinced me that Americans cannot write English musicals either. The occasion, if such it could be called,theatre-pdfs/More Opening Nights on Broadway - Steven Suskin.txt
  • YOU'RE A GOOD MAN, CHARLIE BROWN Book, John Gordon; Based on comic strip "Peanuts" by Charles M. Schulz; Music and Lyncs, Clark Gesner; Director, Joseph Hardy; Sets and Costumes, Alan Kimmel; Lighting, Jules Fisher; Musical Staging, Patricia Birch; Musical Supervision, Arrangements, and Additional Material, Joseph Raposo; Associate Produc…theatre-pdfs/Theatre World/Theatre World, 1971-72 Season, v. 28 (Willis).txt
  • THE UTTER GLORY OF MORRISSEY HALL Book, Clark Gesner, Nagle Jackson; Music and Lyrics, Clark Gesner; Director, Nagle Jackson; Musical Numberstheatre-pdfs/Theatre World/Theatre World, 1978-79, v. 35 (Willis).txt

Passages naming this person, found by keyword across 178 books. A keyword match is not a biography, and a common name will pull in the wrong one.

What this page does not know

  • What this person played. No cast list we hold records a character against a performer.
  • Any staging. This name appears in no production cast list we hold — 1,877 of 7,139 people are in that position, most of them writers, composers and designers rather than performers.
  • Any portrait. 1,626 of 7,139 people have one, so this is the usual case rather than the exception.
  • Which of the credits above the roles on this record — composer, lyricist, book writer — apply to. The roles sit on the person and never on a credit, so a director who also acted looks the same here as one who did not.

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