BWW Reviews: Circle's 25th ANNUAL PUTNAM COUNTY SPELLING BEE

The word was "meningitis." Its definition, please? "Inflammation of the meninges, especially of the pia mater and arachnoid, caused by a bacterial or viral infection and characterized by high fever, severe headache and stiff neck or back muscles." What is the language of origin? "New Latin." May I hear it in a sentence? "Jef fucked up the McNairy County Spelling Bee championship by not knowing how to spell 'meningitis'."

And I have lived with that shame for the last 20-plus years (the "plus" being rather fluid, if you get my drift) and I still wonder how different my life would have been had I spelled the word correctly or if The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee had debuted several decades earlier than its actual Broadway bow.

No matter how well you know a show - how easily you can recall plot points or parrot dialogue - it's sometime good to revisit a musical even if you've seen it countless times. Oftentimes it rekindles your love for a show or, hell, it just reminds you how much fun you have every time you see a new revival. Kudos, therefore, are due director Josh Waldrep and his merry band of mischief makers who bring The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee to the stage to conclude Circle Players' 65th season.

Under Waldrep's finely tuned direction, and Rolin Mains' exceptional musical direction, the cast brings their quirky characters to life with a sense of unbridled enthusiasm that spells F-U-N for their audiences and prove, once again, that Spelling Bee is as delightful and entertaining nowadays as it ever was when first you laid eyes on William Barfee, Leaf Coneybear and Olive Ostrovsky. That rag-tag bunch of competitive spellers who have been making the community and regional theater circuit ever since the show scored big at the Tony Awards in 2005 remain as engaging and as weirdly sweet as you remember and their onstage antics are just as hilarious.

Waldrep's ensemble - a captivating blend of Nashville stage veterans and bright and shiny new faces - take on the challenge of their characters with enthusiasm, delivering a performance that's sure to please and which touches the heart in all the places both expected and unexpected. Perhaps most noteworthy, however, is the completely unique take on the aforementioned William Barfee by Jason Lewis, that is somehow fresh, original and wonderfully off-kilter. Lewis' return to the Nashville stage is most welcome.

He's joined in his spelling adventures by a heartbreakingly genuine Nikki Berra as Olive, whose parents are still distant and largely absent in her life; the wickedly funny Austin Olive as Leaf, as busy an actor as you'll find in Nashville, who has put his wide range and versatility on full display this season; and Wesley King, last seen playing Jesus in The Keeton Theatre's recent Godspell, as boy scout Chip Tolentino, whose errant erections are still jizzing up - sorry, I meant to type "jazzing up," but my fingers aren't cooperating - the Bee. Despite sound issues at the performance reviewed, which only made everything harder, he soldiered on impressively.

There's also Christen Heilman Runyon, who plays Logainne Schwartzandgrubenierre with focused energy that allows you to forget she's a grown-up playing a 10-year-old; and Nikki Giapoutzis, as Marcy Park, who insists she's "not all business," in a forceful performance underscored by a sense of ennui that no prepubescent scholar should ever be made to feel.

As the adults (and I lose that term loosely) Brett Myers and Amie Lara give thoughtful, if downright hilarious, performances as Vice Principal Douglas Panch (whose peccadilloes remain as amusingly daft as ever) and former Bee champ Rona Lisa Peretti (who has graduated to the real estate game in adulthood). Myers is superbly downtrodden - it's easy to picture his character still living in his parents' basement - and Lara is decidedly upbeat, and in beautiful voice onstage.

Yet, it's Donald Carter who threatens to walk off with the show, lock, stock and barrel, with his powerfully wrought portrayal of "comfort counselor" Mitch Mahoney. Carter moves seamlessly and effortlessly through his slate of characters and delivers his big 11 o'clock number with much showmanship and chutzpah.

Mains' five-member band does a great job infusing the show with energy and great musical accompaniment, Chris Heinz provides the players ample opportunity to move around the stage in style, and Janice Denson's costumes help the actors claim their characters more easily, while the show's physical trappings don't so much transport audiences (the venue is Pearl-Cohn Comprehensive High School, aka PCHS as in Putnam County High School) as immerse them in the familiar milieu of the Bee's festivities.

You still have four more chances to see Spelling Bee this weekend, so buy your tickets, pull out the dictionary, brush up on your spelling and prepare yourself for spelling bee heroics (audience members are asked to participate onstage in the bee itself!). Just remember, it's spelled M-E-N-I-N-G-I-T-I-S!

• The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. Music and lyrics by William Finn. Book by Rachel Sheinkin. Conceived by Rebecca Feldman. Directed by Joshua Waldrep. Music direction by Rolin Mains. Choreography by Chris Heinz. Presented by Circle Players at Pearl-Cohn Comprehensive High School, Nashville. Through May 31. www.circleplayers.net Running time: 1 hour, 40 minutes (with no intermission).

To post a comment, you must register and login.