Rachel Dratch & Jeff Hiller Join Encores’ ‘You’re A Good Man, Charlie Brown’; Gershwins’ ‘Let ’Em Eat Cake’ Added To Season

Rachel Dratch will portray Patty (the non-Peppermint one) and Jeff Hiller will be the piano-playing Schroeder in the upcoming City Center Encores! production of You’re A Good Man, Charlie Brown.

Dratch and Hiller join the previously announced Danielle Brooks (Lucy), Ayo Edebiri (Snoopy), Jin Ha (Linus) and David Hyde Pierce (Charlie Brown) to round out the Peanuts gang for the Sam Pinkleton-directed musical revival.

You’re A Good Man, Charlie Brown runs February 3-14 at New York City Center. The new castings were announced today.

Also today, City Center announced that the previously announced production of Hallelujah, Baby! – the 1968 musical by Jule Styne and Arthur Laurents with lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolph Green – is being postponed for a future Encores! season to allow time for its continued creative development.

In its place on the Encores! schedule next spring will be Let ’Em Eat Cake, a little-known 1933 political satire musical by George and Ira Gershwin with book by George S. Kaufman and Morrie Ryskind. The musical will take the March 17-28, 2027, slot previously slotted for Hallelujah, Baby!

Let ‘Em Eat Cake will be directed by Zack Winokur (Artistic Director, American Modern Opera Company), in association with Opera Philadelphia, with Guest Music Director Rob Berman leading The Encores! Orchestra.

“When the team realized that bringing Hallelujah, Baby! back to the stage required a bit more time, I remembered a conversation with Anthony [Roth Costanzo, General Director and President of Opera Philadelphia] and Zack about a little-known Gershwin musical they were working on at Opera Philadelphia,” said Jenny Gersten, VP & Artistic Director, Musical Theater. “Featuring some of the Gershwins’ most exciting music and a funny and absurdist book by George S. Kaufman and Morrie Ryskind, it made the utmost sense, both artistically and logistically, to join Anthony and Zack in the adventure of discovering this unknown gem and to share it with Encores! audiences.”

The synopsis: “When President Wintergreen loses his reelection and refuses to accept the results, what follows is an absurdist romp featuring a fashion-fueled revolution, a Supreme-ly high-stakes baseball game, and increasingly unhinged hijinks. This 1933 musical farce, with book by George S. Kaufman and Morrie Ryskind, features one of George and Ira Gershwin’s most adventurous scores filled with rich and complex melodies including the popular love song ‘Mine.’ The sequel to Of Thee I Sing, the first musical to win the Pulitzer Prize, Let ’Em Eat Cake gives audiences a rare chance to experience a little-known Gershwin score—a perfect fit for the Encores! series.”

Though Let ‘Em Eat Cake didn’t make any significant contributions to the Gershwin songbook, it’s number “Mine” found some success in 1944 when Bing Crosby and Judy Garland recorded it as a duet.

In addition to You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown and Let ’Em Eat Cake, the upcoming Encores! season also includes Kiss of the Spider Woman (April 28 – May 9).