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The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee
Music & Lyrics by William Finn
Book by Rachel Sheinkin
Based on C-R-E-P-U-S-C-U-L-E an original play by The Farm
Conceived by Rebecca Feldman
Additional material by Jay Reiss
Directed by James Lapine
Choreography by Dan Knechtges
Produced by David Stone & Broadway In Chicago
At Drury Lane Water Tower Place
175 East Chestnut Street
Chicago, IL
Call 312-902-1400, tickets $59.50 - $ 69.50
Offering a day-of-performance drawing for $25 for seats in the first two rows for Tuesdays through Thursdays
Wednesdays at 2 & 7:30 PM
Thursdays at 7:30 PM
Fridays at 8 PM
Saturdays at 2 & 8 PM
Sundays at 2 & 6:30 PM
Running time is 100 minutes with no intermission
Through September, 2007
Can you spell B-R-I-L-L-I-A-N-T, H-i-L-A-R-I-O-U-S and
I- N-G-E-N-I-O-U-S? The answer is The 25th Annual Putnam Country Spelling Bee!
“If you like to laugh
If you like to spell
You'll like this competition very well
And feel your heart begin to swell.
As you watch the spellers once again excel
You'll root for it to hang around for a good long spell.”
--from Leaf Coneybear’s song
“ Does it say I only sleep three hours a night, I hide in the
bathroom cabinet, and I’m not allowed to cry?”
---quote from Marcy Park, a speller
“It’s like ‘Survivor’ for nerds.”
--William Finn on Spelling Bee
Chicago has another “hot” musical that will leave everyone glowing. Move over Wicked, the nerds now reign supreme on Michigan and Chestnut. Drury Lane Water Tower Place holds a spelling bee eight times per week. It is hilarious, charming, empathetic and pure fun. The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee is as near a perfect a musical comedy as one could imagine.
This smart, hip, thoroughly engaging musical is by far the funniest musical to hit the stage in decades. I laughed my self silly with Rachel Sheinkin’s Tony Award winning book and William Finn’s tuneful songs. This is a wispy little musical that wins us from the start and keeps us laughing and cheering for our favorite nerd to win the bee. It is rare that I love a show so much that I wanted it to last another hour or two. Spelling Bee is that kind of show. So full of heart, grace and wit, it is a genuine crowd pleaser of the first order. I predict Spelling Bee will run for years. It is that appealing; it is that funny.
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Americans are quite competitive and spelling bees happen across this country often. Who can’t remember getting a gold ribbon for getting 100% on the weekly spelling test? Everyone remembers the word that they missed in the school spelling bee (or the word that won it for them). So a musical about a junior high school spelling bee is a natural. Especially when it’s populated by three quirky adults and six tweens in the throes of puberty and four random audience members. Add clever writing and excellent characterizations and Spelling Bee certainly spells W-I-N-N-E-R.
Supervising the Putnam County spelling bee is Rona Lisa Peretti, herself a past winner and present teacher. She is played by the rich voiced Lucia Spina. Her word reader is the weird vice principal Douglas Panch, played by Bill Larkin. The security person is the ex-con Mitch Mahoney, James Earl Jones II who belts his songs with verve.
The six nerds are a lovable collection of kids all battling adolescent demons while searching for the big spelling bee trophy. The teens are overachievers struggling to please their parents and themselves.
Orthography (the science of word spelling) is supreme for these kids. There is the red-headed freckle-faced Leaf Conetbear who designs his own clothing and who finished third in his school’s spelling bee. Leaf doubts his intelligence yet he squints and spells words in a viciously funny eye-blinking manner. Derrick Trumbly is perfect as the cute and shy boy next door type chuck full of innocence. We learn to love him with his tender song “I’m Not That Smart.” Trumbly’s golden voice sparkles.
There is the girl with the lisp and pigtails who only walks in straight lines and has two gay fathers. Logainne Schwartandgrubenierre played by Christine Werny with eye-popping cuteness. She is a junior high feminist.
Next there is the Catholic school girl dressed in her school plaid uniform whose confidence and brilliance includes speaking six (not five) languages, baton twirling and piano. Marcy Perk is played strongly by Jen Sese, who hides her fear of the world through achievement.
Chip Berkowitz, the reigning spelling champion, is dressed in his boy scout uniform. Brad Weinstock is hilarious as he loses due to his trouble with a sexual fantasy. His funny rendition of “My Unfortunate Erection” brings the house down.
Then there is the bright beauty Olive whose parents are always traveling to foreign lands leaving her to drown her loneliness in a dictionary. Cristen Paige is terrific as Olive.
Spelling Bee’s most memorable dysfunctional nerd is the sickly, fat boy whose ritual for spelling comes from his deft use of his “magic foot” to spell out the words. Eric Roediger is a hoot as William Barfee.
As the show moves along, we get to love and empathize with each kid. Their quirky spelling rituals and wild delivery styles produced rich physical humor. These misfits are so human, so like us, that we cheer for each. The bizarre words selected together with the wacky definitions and sentence usage examples by playwright Rachel Sheinkin add to the laughs. William Finn’s smart lyrics giving each character a definitive song that explains each personality. The rousing opening number and the manic “Pandemonium” number got the cast energized.
The risky use of four audience members to be contestants worked at the performance I reviewed. These plants really got into the spirit of the show and one girl even spelled a tough word correctly.
Spelling Bee does everything superbly. This is a polished flawless show, long on laughs with gobs of heart. The audience enthusiastically responds to each scene. This is an entertaining good time show that families will want to see over again. Once word of mouth take hold, Spelling Bee will have a long successful run here. Why not? This show is so much fun, I want to see it again. You’ll want to also. Spelling Bee spells “H-I-T” in all capitals.
Not To Be Missed
Tom Williams
Tom99@chicagocritic.com for comments
Talk Theatre in Chicago Podcast
Date Reviewed April 14, 2006
Jeff Recommended
Review Update:
Spelling Bee is the coolest place to be-over and over again!
The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, music & lyrics by William Finn with a book by Rachel Sheinkin is the hottest new hit of the summer of 2006. It plays at Drury Lane Water Tower Place. Since it last March, the word on the street is that Spelling Bee is a ‘must see,’ wonderfully funny show. Critics, sophisticated theatre patrons and families have given the show the kind of buzz that few modern musicals ever possess. Only Wicked has attained such a strong following that has many, especially teenaged girls painting their faces green as they march into the theatre for the fourth or fifth time.
Well, we are seeing signs that The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee is approaching that coveted status as a show to be seen over again. It was one of the few shows that I desired to see again and I did on Tuesday, July 25, 2006. I arrived early to see the large crowd trying to win the raffle to get $25 tickets in the first two rows. I also asked several of the groups of families if anyone had seen the show before. In most every case, at least one of the groups had, indeed, seen the show and now has returned with their extended family and friends to share the joy and excitement of Spelling Bee.
As the crowd grew, the staff members asked each group if anyone wanted to put their name on the list to be possibly called up on stage to participate in the spelling bee. You see, in each performance, four luck audience members are selected to be apart of the show. They connect the audience to the show and they add a funny touch with actions on stage. Amazingly, on this night a middle aged woman got a difficult word correct. She got a laugh and an appreciative applause for her talent. The next word they gave her was impossible so she departed. Oh well!
I enjoyed Spelling Bee more this time because, while I knew the storyline and what was going to happen, I was now able to observe how brilliantly crafted the show is. How wonderfully the audience takes to the show and all the characters. From the engaging opening song, the audience is abuzz with anticipation. Few shows are have so much heart and empathy that audiences readily take to them so soon. Spelling Bee has that due to the polished, empathetic turns from the fabulous nine actors in the ensemble. From the cute songs to the funny, wacky characterizations of each of the six teen spellers to the goofy assistant principal and his assistant to the cool security guard, Spelling Bee is Middle America on stage. We relate to each. They are a mirror of us and we like what we see. We laugh and cheer for each to win. We hope that all six can win and we appreciate the talents and quirkiness of each.
I was amazed by just how much enthusiasm the audience felt from the start of the show. The word sure must be around because this audience came to laugh and have a good time and that’s exactly what they got. For a Tuesday performance, I counted about 20 empty seats in a house that holds over 500. That not bad for a show that has been running for over five months!
The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee works to deliver a pleasant experience because it has a light energy that doesn’t take itself seriously but has a competitive spirit that audiences love. Filled with cute songs and funny characters, Spelling Bee captures the innocence we all remember. The manic pace and the unexpected twists keep us thrilled, laughing and engaged. The 100 minutes fly by as we laugh ourselves silly. I now understand the show’s appeal. It is pure entertainment done flawlessly. Its energy is infectious. It’s like eating popcorn, you just can’t eat one hand full, and you must have more. I’ll have to catch Spelling Bee again when it has its one year anniversary next April. By that time, some will have seen it 6 or 7 times.
Get to Spelling Bee soon, I can’t think of a better way to get the kids ready for school. They’ll spell e-n-j-o-y-m-e-n-t correctly, I’m sure.
Tom Williams
July 25, 2006
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