Barrington Stage Company/Sheffield

By: Adrienne Onofri Aug. 05, 2004

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Last summer Barrington Stage Company premiered Ears on a Beatle, which went on to an off-Broadway run, and this year it continues its affiliation with playwright Mark St. Germain with the debut of his newest play, The God Committee (through Aug. 7). Set in a conference room at fictional St. Patrick's Hospital in New York City, the play depicts a meeting of the hospital staffers who decide which patient will get a heart that has become available for transplant. That plot is nothing like Beatle, which focused on the FBI's 1970s surveillance of John Lennon, but St. Germain clearly dug into the same bag of tricks in crafting both plays.

First, the good similarities: brevity (God runs 90 minutes including intermission) and engaging characters and performances. Those characters, however, are—just like Beatle's—types rather than complex personalities: idealistic young (female) doctor, outspoken but respectful black woman (a nurse), arrogant male surgeon, compassionate priest, etc. And just as in Beatle, there's a contrived "big revelation" toward the end and a change-of-heart by two antagonists that essentially flipflops their worldviews. Both plays also have a secondary, offstage storyline that seems highly unrealistic—in The God Committee, it's a doctor transporting the heart in a standard-issue cooler via motorcycle and subway. St. Germain also has once again written dialogue that is too glib, contains too much speechifying and gratuitously references hot topics from the headlines (at one point, the Twin Towers, the war and weapons of mass destruction are all mentioned in under a minute). And the fact that two of the three female characters contemplate giving up their career because of its emotional toll isn't exactly the script's strongest point either.
The God Committee does provide some insight into the behind-the-scenes wranglings of the medical establishment, and it opens with an outstanding sound effect, designed by Randy Hansen. With the lights down, we hear the sequence of events that made a heart available: car crash, ambulance siren, cardiograph flatlining. The play is uniformly well-acted by some familiar faces from stage and TV, including David Rasche, Gerrit Graham, Ron Orbach and Michele Shay.

Barrington Stage Company's second stage was home to this summer's biggest Berkshires hit: The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, a new musical by Falsettos composer William Finn. Spelling Bee has, unfortunately, concluded its monthlong run—I was lucky enough to catch one of the last performances. Coincidentally, during the final week of the run, USA Today reported that Disney is developing a stage musical of last year's documentary film Spellbound. No need, Disney, a great spelling-bee musical has already been created...

I'm pretty confident The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee will be back, probably on a New York stage. It's too good not to live on. The show might be too intimate for Broadway, but in many ways Spelling Bee is a worthy successor to, and spiritual twin of, Avenue Q: It too depicts a child's milieu, but with adult sensibilities and knowledge. It's hilarious, clever and at times off-color (one of the songs is "My Unfortunate Erection"), but there are poignance and sensitivity in the script as well. Why, just like Avenue Q's Christmas Eve, there's even an Asian girl with a whimsical name—Gramercy Park—in the cast.

So let's talk about Gramercy and her fellow contestants: Six children played by adult actors who were brilliantly cast. They were funny enough just as a sight gag—a portly, bespectacled brainiac; a lisping, pigtailed adolescent tugging at her tights; a Catholic schoolgirl in uniform; a space cadet wearing a cape, and so on. Those may sound like caricatures, but with each child's personality and backstory developed in a song and scenes taking place off the spelling stage—plus the enormous energy and commitment that the performers brought to their roles—they became believable, fully realized characters. A slew of childhood hangups are incorporated into these six personalities, and it's no exaggeration to say you could forget the performers were adults. Like petite Celia Keenan-Bolger, who broke hearts as a neglected child who finds solace in the dictionary (her song ingeniously connected the word she had to spell to her family life). And Sarah Saltzberg, the political-activist daughter—Bushies, beware—of two gay men (hence her last name, Schwartzandgrubenierre). The hypertalented "children's" cast also included: Dan Fogler, whose agility and vocal idiosyncrasies gave new dimensions to the disheveled science nerd; Deborah S. Craig as a rebellious overachiever; Robb Sapp as the hormonally flummoxed defending champion; and Jesse Tyler Ferguson as a runner-up who's not sure he belongs in the competition. And as the grown-ups, Derrick Baskin, Lisa Howard and Jay Reiss were also excellent. Reiss offered killer delivery of some of the funniest lines in the show, the sample sentences containing the spelling words.

Barrington Stage's performance spaces are inside a school, which provided the perfect ambience for the school-set Spelling Bee. The company had workshopped the musical throughout the winter with Finn, whose colleague on the NYU musical-theater faculty, Rachel Sheinkin, wrote the book. Spelling Bee grew out of a nonmusical play that was presented in 2002 at New York's Present Company Theatorium under the direction of Rebecca Feldman, who is credited with conceiving the show and who codirected BSC's production with Michael Unger. In this day and age it feels like such a gift—not to mention a relief—to see a thoroughly enjoyable new musical. Here's hoping many more people get to see The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. www.barringtonstageco.org

Where to stay... Who would expect to see fabulous theater like Spelling Bee with cornfields and cow pens only a couple of miles away? But that's what the Berkshires is all about, and you can enjoy the best of both worlds at Birch Hill Bed & Breakfast. Just a few minutes' drive from Barrington Stage Company, Birch Hill occupies 20 acres on a tranquil rural road. The grounds are beautifully maintained and landscaped, comprising a large lawn, woods, even an in-ground pool (also immaculate) with chaise longues and pool toys available. Parts of the house date from the American Revolution, and decor in the seven guestrooms reflects both history and the country surroundings. You can relax, read, watch television, listen to music in the large common room, where a bountiful breakfast is served by owner Michael Advocate (wife Wendy is the chef). Birch Hill offers a pleasant, comfortable getaway amid nature, but with easy access to all the culture you'd like. www.birchhillbb.com

Photos, from top: Armand Schultz and Shay in God Committee [photo by Kevin Sprague]; Fogler, Craig, Keenan-Bolger, Ferguson and Saltzberg in Spelling Bee [photo by Joe Schuyler].

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Barrington Stage Company/Sheffield

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