It's hard for life to imitate art, so shifting characters based in the funnies to the stage is especially difficult. Appropriately, Actors Ensemble of Berkeley's production of the musical adaptation of "You're a Good Man Charlie Brown" can't live up to its animated forbearer. The orchestra, dancing, and singing of the musical are fun relapses into childhood nostalgia, but "Charlie Brown" never fulfills the presence of the Peanuts gang.

That presence should come to fore in the performances, but the acting is maddeningly uneven. For the most part, the title character (played by Kyle Johnson) mopes around, aimlessly through a single day. Being a sad sack is nothing new for Charlie Brown as a character, but his role as the melancholic straight man requires a spark of pathos to really succeed. Johnson never rises above that misery. Even his upbeat song and dance numbers lack a sense of urgency and sincerity that seems a prerequisite for a musical.

However, several performances rise above the bland and the blah. Three of the actors take very different approaches to the adaptation, all of them succeeding. Michelle Pond as Lucy Van Pelt is perfect as the bullying, self-aggrandizing Ms. Piggy alter ego. She perfectly inhabits the character from the "Peanuts" animated program. The pitch and timbre of her voice mimics that Saturday morning classic with amazing fidelity. Even Pond's movements are in sync with that cartoon, as her Lucy stomps, huffs and puffs her way around the playground onstage.

Ted V. Bigornia takes Linus Van Pelt in a different direction from that of the cartoon. His performance gives a unique flavor to Linus' sage words and irrational fears. The Schulz comics portray Linus as an

unassuming wise child. Bigornia's performance adds a bit of professorial snobbery and elitist attitude to the character. His head is constantly up and his eyes narrow with derision at his fellow playmates. This hardened academic caricature may stray from the "Peanuts" canon, but as the contrast between educated and infantile deepens, it only makes Linus and his security blanket funnier.

Third and finally there is the effervescent Snoopy, sans paws or tails. David Irving plays the hound without a significant costume (besides white pants, a white shirt and black suspenders) but still manages to invoke that trademark grin. Irving gives the same whimsy and wit that fans of Peanuts have come to love. But without the ears, Irving perched on the red dog house becomes something entirely different and fresh.

He gives voice to a voiceless character, a hard task indeed. His Snoopy is neither overly cute nor the scene of misplaced symbolism, as some kind of Zen talisman. Irving is playing to a mixed audience, belting his lungs out atop that doghouse, aiming to please both the 6-year-old and the 60-year-old. And while at times those lungs can't match the orchestra placed beyond the curtains, Irving's performance is the highlight of the show.

While the acting peaks at times for "Charlie Brown" the loose-ended narrative never seems to get going. The events of the play occur in one day, but there is little impetus for the viewer to know why one scene followed another. The production became a mere revue of Peanuts tropes, themes and catchphrases, which worked only due to nostalgia. Individual scenes, for the most part, were fun and entertaining (the newly added musical number Beethoven Day was, however, pedantically Marxist), as the Actor's Ensemble sung, dance and tapped their way through the two acts. But the lack of a more tangible narrative really hurt the entire production. Within the limits of the Live Oak, and with the capabilities of the actors, the singing and dancing alone were never going to carry the show.