The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee

The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee

lyrics and music by William Finn

book by Rachel Sheinkin

On the Main Stage

May 25 to June 27, 2010

The show started at crepuscule .Six kids face off in the battle of their lives. The competition is intense. The words are outrageous. Let the spelling (and the singing) begin! Three adults adjudicate the proceedings: a nostalgic former spelling bee winner, a mildly insane with a comb over Vice Principal and The Official Crapulous Comfort Counselor completing his community service to the State of New York. Both tender and sardonic, this hilarious Tony Award-winning musical of overachievers’ angst brings you inside the spelling championship to end them all. From the author of Falsettos and A New Brain. Recommended for ages 12 and up.

Fun stuff

• Rona Lisa Peretti: The #1 Realtor in Putnam County -Wacky Goofy kind of reminded me of Kristian Wiig's character on SNL. Showed great versatility when switching to other roles. 
• Vice Principal Douglas Panch: -Wonderful comb over quirky nerd ball.
• Mitch Mahoney: The Official Comfort Counselor. -Showed amazing versatility playing other parts.
• Olive Ostrovsky: -My favourite character. Under the frumpy farmer painter pants a super star ready to emerge or at least spell some difficult words.
• William Barfée - Ignatious from Confederacy of Dunces. Once again lovable and punchable.  Great interaction with Vice Principal Panch. pronounced Bar fay not Barfy.
• Logainne Schwartzandgrubenierre - daughter of two gay parents. politically aware poking fun at Arizona and Sara Palin
• Marcy Park:-she knows six languages and is the star of her soccer team. She is sick of that success and is over whelmed when she mercifully misspells a word.
• Leaf Coneybear: -stoner of note who spells words in a trance and at the end realizes he is smarter than he though he was.

• Chip Tolentino -gets an erection mid bee while falling in love with somebody in the audience. later he plays  the perfect dropped from heaven Jesus who could give a rip about spelling bees.

In general a very enjoyable show from beginning to end.  The plays on word roll all night long. The music is fine addition to a somewhat predictable story with unpredictable punch lines and quirky twist of words and stage schematics. Jesus popping out of the ceiling was a quirky high light and the fast motion slow motion effect was fun as hell. Tonight's random guests were vivacious and blended well. One has got to love Portland center Stage. we are lucky to have it here in Portland. A mid week crowd of near capacity seemed to relish the show. Complex jokes were heard and understood by the crowd, the musical pieces came off great and the only real complaint of the night was the Hefeweisen before the show. Not even sure if I spelled that right.

From the web site I come to see plays to...

• to be challenged with new ways of thinking (43.0%, 266 Votes)
• to get wrapped up in an engrossing story (42.0%, 258 Votes)
• Laugh and escape for a few hours (29.0%, 175 Votes)
• to have a date night (13.0%, 82 Votes)
• to spend time with friends (10.0%, 61 Votes)
• to see my favorite actors perform (8.0%, 50 Votes)

For me its date night, laugh, escape, be challenged and enjoy the stage. To be quite honest we contemplated skipping the show tonight but we were glad that we did not. At one time in our lives we are meant for the stage and at other it is for us to enjoy and that we did.

And I kind of remember spelling along correctly with most of the words but that's the suspension of reality that goes along with the theatre.

crepuscule -- twilight

lugubrious -- mournful, dismal

omphaloskepsis -- contemplating one's navel

phylactery -- leather box inscribed with Scripture worn by Jewish men during prayer

pyrrhuloxia -- a bird related to the cardinal

acouchi -- a rodent in the Amazon rain forest

But obscure words are still a big part of the fun.

Links to the Show- Buy Tickets