Review: THE 25TH ANNUAL PUTNAM COUNTY SPELLING BEE

S-P-E-L-L-I-N-G B-E-E. Those 11 letters spell out "spelling bee," but in the Garden Theatre's production of THE 25TH ANNUAL PUTNAM COUNTY SPELLING BEE, those 11 letters spell so much more than that. Based on a fictional spelling bee in the fictional Putnam County, this hilarious and heartfelt tale centers on six young spellers who made it through various rounds in their own school's spelling bee to compete at the illustrious 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. Along with the six adolescent kids are the three adults who run the bee. Each child is played by an adult and each of them have their own quirks, hardships, and goals which make this show an absolute delight.

Right from the beginning the audience is brought into the bee as four members of the audience are chosen to be spelling bee contestants and come up on stage. Throughout the show, the four audience members are chosen one by one to come up and spell out a word until a difficult word takes them out of the competition. They are then escorted off the stage by the grief counselor, Mitch Mahoney (played by Anachebe Asomugah), with a "goodbye" song sung by the other contestants and given a consolation juice box to thank them for competing. These audience members are given numbers and can ask the word's definition and to use it in a sentence, just like the regular contestants, with both the definitions and the sentences being some of the funniest parts of the show.

Director Kenny Howard and Musical Director JulIan Bond and have truly outdone themselves with this show. On the surface it may look like just a fun farce with kids singing about a spelling bee, but the characters' emotions and different stories about why the bee matters to them is truly what makes this show different. I especially liked the story of Leaf Coneybear played by Eric Desnoyers. Leaf is a remarkably smart kid but he doubts himself because he gets easily distracted and his family lacks faith in him. I've seen this show before at other theaters and it's very easy for the actor playing Leaf to lay the disability aspect of the character on too thick and to therefore make the character's message less effective. In this production however, that was not the case. I appreciatEd Howard's direction and Desnoyer's acting as the character was able to be funny and quirky when need be, but it didn't feel like the audience only knew him for his disability - rather we knew his life story and wanted him to succeed to please his family. In addition, his trance-like state when he goes to a spell word is hilarious!

I also enjoyed the direction Howard took with the moderness of the show. Pop culture and sometimes adult jokes were thrown in which kept the audience on their toes and made the show relevant to today (for example, the character of Logainne SchwartzandGrubenierre played by Savannah Simerly is extremely liberal and in addition to wearing anti-Trump buttons, she has a lengthy speech in the show about how unqualified current Education Secretary Betsy Devos is, much to many audience members' dismay. To me however... I thought it was incredibly funny and perfect!).

One of the standouts of the show was the character of Olive Ostrovsky. Her story is both sad and inspiring - she's a new speller to the bee and goes through the competition with no family members present since her mom is in India and her dad works late. Her best friend growing up was a dictionary, but during the course of the show she just so happens to make a new friend. Played by Kayla Alvarez, I was amazed by her vocal range and her ability to bring Olive's vulnerability, but also hope, to life.

Kit Cleto's William Barfée was also great fun to watch. I'd seen Cleto in a few performance at Deland's Athens Theatre (he was fabulous in "Spamalot" and "A Christmas Carol") and I'm glad he is venturing out and starting to perform in other theaters in the Central Florida area. Cleo is a tour de force with an amazing range both vocally and theatrically. I can't wait to see what he's in next!

The Garden Theatre's production of THE 25TH ANNUAL PUTNAM COUNTY SPELLING BEE is the definition of funny and adorable. By now, I hope I don't have to spell it out for you. Don't miss it or you'll be sorely D-I-S-S-A-P-O-I-N-T-E-D! The show runs now through February 26 and tickets can be purchased here or by calling the box office at (407) 877-4736.

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So, was THE 25TH ANNUAL PUTNAM COUNTY SPELLING BEE as F-U-N-N-Y and Q-U-I-R-K-Y to you as it was to me? Let me know! Don't forget to follow BWW Orlando on Facebook and Twitter by clicking below. You can also connect with me about this show and all things theatre by following me on Twitter @libbychamps.

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