Through November 17
THE 25TH ANNUAL PUTNAM COUNTY SPELLING BEE Shea’s Smith Theatre/2nd Generation Theatre
Spelling is one of those knacks, some have it and some don’t.
Most of us can remember standing in school and being asked to spell a particular word.
It wasn’t competitive, more standing in front of our peers of whatever grade and showing we could spell in public.
I guess it was a guide to most of us where we were going as adults, using the language we had started with.
On the other hand, spelling bees are competitive and some get live TV coverage.
“The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee” suggests many contestants are oddballs of a class and a school.
Maybe yes and maybe not.
Today, spelling is important in this computer world, even with those annoying screen flashes offering new combinations of letters or grammar confused by the spelling or language rules we proposed.
This musical from William Finn, Rachel Sheinkin and Rebeccas Feldman offers lots of words we have bever heard before, much less tried to spell.
“The 25th Annual” comes in all sorts of versions, including an adult show, with adult words.
This isn’t that.
While the show is built around the young competitors, there are three adults, MC Rona Lisa Peretti (Amy Jakiel), pronouncer and assistant principal Douglas Panch (Steve Copps), with the two seemingly having a personal track record, and a young man who is doing community service from the courts, Mitch Mahoney (Brian Brown).
There are also four ringers from the audience.
We meet the spellers and learn something about them at the same time, including the hippy Leaf Coneybear, with his self-made and colorful commune clothing; the Catholic school-uniformed Marcy Park (Sofia Siracuse); and, William Barfee (Darrien Brown) who spells out his word on the stage floor with his foot before announcing his spelling.
It’s all that way, from Barfee’s song, “Magic Foot,” to Park’s “I Speak Six Languages” to Coneybear’s “I’m Not That Smart.”
All through this, we are losing competitors, starting with the audience members.
In the end, we come down to a trick ending.
This isn’t a great musical, although it’s getting a strong production here, helped along by some effective performances, like Copps, Sabrina Kahwaty’s Olive Ostrovsky and Stevie Kemp’s Logainne Schwartzandgrubenierre.
There are a couple of songs which stick out, Brian Brown’s “Player of the Comfort Counselor;” Derrian Brown and the company’s “Magic Foot” and the company with “My Friend the Dictionary.”
To make it all go, Chris Cavanagh contributed good sound and a wonderful school auditorium.
Kristin Bentley as director and Kelly Copps as choreographer make the on-stage activity all work well.
While the “25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee” is a weakly entertaining musical, it’s getting a strong production with some solid performances from the cast to make it worth seeing.
A.W.
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