THE 25TH ANNUAL PUTNAM COUNTY SPELLING BEE Comes to TheaterWorks This Fall
Performances run October 24–November 9, 2025, at the Peoria Center for the Performing Arts.
By: A.A. Cristi Sep. 26, 2025
TheaterWorks will present the Tony Award-winning musical comedy The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee from October 24 through November 9, 2025, at the Peoria Center for the Performing Arts.
The production will transform the venue into Putnam Valley Middle School, offering audiences an immersive pre-show lobby experience with interactive elements, character encounters, and playful surprises before the musical even begins.
Each performance will invite four audience members to join the cast onstage as Guest Spellers. Select performances will also include Celebrity Guest Spellers, such as Arizona native Sam Primack, who starred on Broadway as the title character in Dear Evan Hansen in 2022, and KTAR Radio host Bruce St. James.
This production builds on TheaterWorks’ history of immersive programming, following the success of Curiouser & Curiouser, which drew nearly 5,000 audience members and inspired an Emmy Award-winning documentary.
Onstage, Spelling Bee follows six eccentric middle schoolers (played by adults) as they compete for the county championship, discovering that friendship and belonging can mean more than winning. With music and lyrics by William Finn and a book by Rachel Sheinkin, the show won the 2005 Tony and Drama Desk Awards for Best Book of a Musical.
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