Can you spell ‘a perfect musical for kids and adults?’

Posted 4/25/18

by Hugh Hunter

“The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee” (2005) is the perfect musical for school theatricals. But the show now running at Old Academy Players in East Falls proves it also …

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Can you spell ‘a perfect musical for kids and adults?’

Posted

by Hugh Hunter

“The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee” (2005) is the perfect musical for school theatricals. But the show now running at Old Academy Players in East Falls proves it also plays well to an adult audience.

The title is the story, that of a small-town spelling bee. You get to pick your favorite since you know some youngster will win. The fun lies in all the telltale slip-ups spellers make enroute to the winners’ circle.

When she wears her other hat, director Annie Hnatko is an accomplished singer. But you do not need a voice with operatic power to deliver on the light music and lyrics of William Finn. In this production it is the actors, not the music, who win you over.

“Putnam County” has something in common with all those talent shows you see on television that combine the stress of competition with the human-interest side of the performers. Here, the focus is on the later in which each kid is so clearly needy.

Some cast are enablers. Rona (Meg Murphy) is the singing emcee. Vice Principal Panch (Norm Burnosky) is the enforcer who loves to punch out failed spellers with his little bell while Mitch Mahoney (Durrell Griffin) physically ejects losers with a mix of compassion and muscle. The kid never knows for sure which side of Mitch he will get.

In the showdown spelling bee, it is the boys against the girls. Wearing his boy scout uniform diffident Chip (Edward A. Young) is eager to please. William Barfee (Patrick Sutton) is a loser type whose only gift is the ability to spell. Leaf Coneybear (Christian Conklin) seems to want everyone to hug him.

They match up against three girls: funny looking Logainne Schwartzandgrubenierre (sung well by Maya Chester-Ziv), parochial school Marcy (Gina Marie Schwoerer), the cocky kid who knows everything and Olive (Amanda Ross), a latchkey child who yearns for family togetherness.

And did I mention you yourself can get on stage? The book by Rachel Sheinkin calls for audience volunteer spellers (three in the opening night show). The production is interactive in other ways. Emcee Rona pitches you as the spelling bee audience, and contestants enter/exit through the center aisle.

Not all cast members are young, but with their distinctive costumes and doubtful bearing, they come across as early teens. A few, like Logainne and Marcy, were comically self-assured. Some others were ill-at-ease adolescents, trying to figure out what face to show the world.

In short, the “Putnam County Spelling Bee” is full of archetypical kids with awkward coming-of-age moments. You recognize your own mannered youth in them, and you have the poignant sense that in trying to win the spelling bee, each one is grasping at straws.

Old Academy Players is located at 3544 Indian Queen Lane. “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee” will run through May 6. Reservations at 215-843-1109.

arts