25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee

“The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee” is a musical comedy conceived by Rebecca Feldman and has music and lyrics written by William Finn, from a book by Rachel Sheinkin with additional material by Jay Reiss. The show is about a Spelling Bee which is taking place at the fictional “Putnam Valley Middle School” in the USA where an eclectic quirky group of six-graders(played by adults) with very different  backgrounds arrive to compete in the Bee run by three equally quirky grown-ups, each of the children is eager to win for very different reasons,
I have to admit that  I had never heard of this show prior to being invited by “St. Paul’s Players” to see their production, so  I went along not knowing what to expect and I have to say I was very pleasantly surprised as I really  enjoyed this very different comedic musical that also had a serious message . There was also an unusual feature of the show as four members of the audience were asked to compete in the Spelling Bee alongside the six young competitors in the cast which made for some very funny moments and very good adlibs. The cast included Christian Brabin as William Barfee,  the  hyper allergic speller who used his “magic foot” to help him spell, Lily Blundell as Logainne Schwartzandgrubenierre, who was trying to live up to the expectations of her two gay dads, Jamie Fletcher as Leaf Coneybear who didn’t  think he was smart enough to be in the Bee,Dave Moloney as Chip Torlentino who was struggling with puberty, Emily Morris as Olive Ostrovsky who’s best friend is the dictionary and Katie Toole as Marcy Park who finds her continuous success disappointing. The adult characters included Jack Corrigan as Mitch Mahoney the counsellor who was on parole, Joanne Hornby as Rona Lisa Peretti the organizer and Robin Armstrong as the seasoned loser Vice Principal Douglas Panch. The very talented cast all performed outstandingly and worked as a team with no weak links producing some wonderful eccentric diverse characters. The production was very slick with the action moving at a very good pace, there were some wonderful comedic moments and all the cast without exception had very good comic timing, which is very important in this type of show. American accents were spot on and diction was very clear which meant the story and the action could be followed very easily, The songs were sung and acted very well and all the performers remained in character during their musical numbers which were accompanied excellently by the band led by Musical Director James Eccleshare. There were some very poignant moments as the audience were privy to the inner thoughts of the competitors and hear about the background of the characters and why they are taking part in the Bee, however in the end they learn that winning isn't everything and that losing doesn't necessarily make you a loser.

The set, lighting, sound and costumes were excellent and just right for the production, well done to all the back stage crew. Congratulations must also go to Director Beth Eccleshare and Producer Phil Armstrong for bringing this outstanding production to the stage, well done to everyone involved, we had a very enjoyable evening and I look forward to seeing you for your next production.
 

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