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Show: The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee
Society: Geoids Musical Theatre
Venue: Brady Arts & Community Centre
Credits: Music & Lyrics by William Finn / Book By Rachel Sheinkin / Conceived By Rebecca Feldman
Type: Sardines
Author: Caroline Jenner
Performance Date: 19/09/2023
The 25th Annual Putnam Spelling Bee
Caroline Jenner | 21 Sep 2023 16:21pm
Photo: Courtesy of Geoids
A little insubstantial in terms of plot, though nevertheless quite entertaining, The 25th Annual Putnam Spelling Bee is based around the American institution of a spelling competition in which contestants are asked to spell a broad selection of words, of varying degree difficulty, as written in dictionaries. With music and lyrics by William Finn, based on the novel by Rachel Sheinkin, this is a strange mix that seems to caricature in quite a ruthless manner one of America’s more quirky institutions.
Six idiosyncratic adolescents compete to win the prize and head on to the nationals in a local heat run by three equally peculiar adults. All of which make the whole show appear a little surreal. Particularly with the addition of four audience members, who are called up by name to join the motley crew on the set and then asked to spell words ranging from rhapsody to cow and a surprise visit by Jesus near the end. It was a shame that before the show the people behind me were discussing the fact that one of them was going to be going down, taking away some of the joy of thinking that a random audience member was being chosen and the relief that it isn’t you!
The competitors are all kids with hang ups, clearly the American Spelling Bee sees itself as a way to allow the eccentric to shine. A strong cast of extremely competent performers had us laughing from the outset at the bizarre nature of the ways they learn their spellings. Aaron Barriscole as Chip Tolentino, the young man whose unfortunate penile dysfunction knocks him out of the competition, Dylan Evans as Leaf Coneybear, the underdog who believes he is stupid and has no chance of winning, Siska Greene’s, effervescent Olive Ostrovsky, whose parents have no time for her and who reads the dictionary in the toilet and Helen Parsons, Logainne Schwartzsandgrubeniere, the girl with two highly competitive dads, a terrible lisp and who spells the words out along her arm. However of particular note are James Lee Campbell who plays William Barfee (or Barfay as he consistently reminds us it should be pronounced), the unloved fat boy who spells out words across the stage with his magic foot and wins the contest with the word WELTANSCHAUUING. A wonderful slobbering performance that is at times truly disgusting, particularly when the show goes into slowmo and the wonderful Amy Foden as Marcy Park, who during her big number I speak six languages manages to cartwheel, play the keyboards, kick box and play the flute whilst standing on her head before finishing with the splits in a way that left us all awestruck.
Our three adults running the event are equally eccentric but do a great deal to hold the piece together as the back story of each character is told in flashback/dream, sequences that interrupt the spelling bee. Sara Rajeswaran’s strong singing voice as Rona Peretti helped strengthen a slightly shaky start to the production with problems with the band and radio mikes, whilst our two men, vice principal Douglas Panch (Mark Siddall) and Mitch Mahoney (Inti Conde) the ex-con doing his community service as comfort counsellor, both turn in convincing performances as people who are won over to kindnesses by the kids so desperate to win the spelling bee.
Not the most memorable of songs, I didn’t come out humming anything in particular, however they serve their purpose in allowing this talented bunch of performers to showcase their singing and dancing skills. The Brady Arts Centre does not give much scope for creative set design, but the benches, table and podium for the trophy provide adequate scope for the scenes to play out with space for some well choreographed pieces.
The original had no interval and to be honest this production could easily have run straight through as the second half was slightly heavy weather with the angst ridden Olive (change the vowels round and you get I Love) and the rather cheesy happy-ever-after ending, which is definitely cloying, CLOYING, cloying adj. meaning having too much of something. However, if you are looking for something fast-paced with a feel-good factor head over to Shoreditch to catch GEOIDS latest offering.
The play runs until September 24th