A lovely, funny, small off-Broadway show that started as improv and went onto Broadway and won the Tony Award for Best Book of a Musical, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee is a satire on the American institution of the Spelling Bee competition and the obsession with competition and winning. Added to this is the gimmick of choosing four people from the audience (who put their names in) each night to get on stage and join in on the fun. This helps the play last longer as the first four competitors eliminated are not cast members as such. The last audience member to go out the night I was there was a brilliant speller, so a made-up impossible-to-spell word was given to them to try to spell with much mirth ensuing. The audience members were really put through their paces, not only did they have to spell (without the benefit of knowing the script like the actors) but they also had to join in on some dance numbers, which meant being dragged around by the performers, which was a hoot.
Each character has a personal story to tell us through song including; Marina Prior as the glamorous perfectly groomed MC / hostess (close to unrecognisable in a blonde wig) who had been a Bee champion as a child, Magda Szubanski playing it amazingly straight as troubled, lonely boy genius with a mucousmembrane disorder, William Barfee (pronounced BarFAY!) who spells each word out with his magic foot, before spelling out loud and David Campbell plays last year’s champion Tripp Barrington who’s emergent manhood proves to be his is ruin, as an unwanted erection causes him to miss a word and drop out of the competition (there is a whole funny song devoted to this called “My Unfortunate Erection”). The other children tell us of coping with pushy, gay or absent parents, being different and being bullied. There is a lovely friendship/romance that develops between William Barfee and Olive who find themselves up against each other in the final round. It’s a very clever witty script but it does not laugh at the misfit characters, it imbues them with great charm and interesting personalities. There is a lot of humour in the bizarre / simple words chosen to spell and definitions and sentences given by the adjudicator. All the performers were very talented and the space suited the show. Its great that these smaller Tony Award winning Broadway hits (Into the Woods, Urinetown etc) are presented by the Melbourne Theatre Company, otherwise we would not get to see them because they don’t have the ‘blockbuster’ factor. Or !#$&#$‘& Andrew Lloyd Webber.
The beauty of this play is that it is fairly simple to stage. A small cast (ten actors & no chorus line required) simple set of a school Gym (a basketball hoop and some benches, a table and chairs for the judges will suffice.) I can see it being done in amateur theatres forever.
The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee is performed by the Melbourne Theatre Company.