REVIEW: v Is Absolutely Hilarious And Touchingly Insightful

Wednesday 13th September 2023, 7:30pm, Hayes Theatre.

Brilliantly funny, William Finn (Music and Lyrics) and Rachel Sheinkin’s (Book) THE 25TH ANNUAL PUTNAM COUNTY SPELLING BEE is presented by the new generation of musical theatre stars under Dash Kruck’s insightful direction.  Providing an amusing but honest look at the challenges facing youth, this work resonates regardless of whether you’ve got personal experience with children’s competitions.

THE 25TH ANNUAL PUTNAM COUNTY SPELLING BEE, based on Rebecca Feldman’s improvisational play C-R-E-P-U-S-C-U-L-E, brings the bright and perky former champion Rona Lisa Peretti (Katrina Retallick) back to the competition as moderator, while the droll and disinterested Vice Principal Douglas Panch (James Haxby) returns, after a 5 year hiatus for unexplained reasons, to judge the competition and be the official work pronouncer who is also on hand to provide definitions and the words in sentences for the competitors.  The competitors are middle school aged children all vying for a chance to go to the finals, a competition probably based on Scripps National Spelling Bee, held in Washington DC.  The six core contestants of Logainne Schwartzandgrubenierre (Adeline Hunter), Marcy Park (Jessica Kok), Olive Ostrovsky (Rebecca Ordiz), Chip Tolentine (Matthew Predny), Leaf Coneybear (Axel Duffy), and William Barfée (Daniel Raso) are supplemented by four audience members that are called down to become contestants in a move linking the work to it’s improv origins.  As the competitors are eliminated, they are comforted by “The Official Comfort Counselor”, Mitch Mahoney (Nathaniel Laga’aia), an ex-con performing community service.

Set Designer Monique Langford has drawn on the idea of children’s building blocks and bold colours to create a set that can be manipulated from stands where the contestants observe and wait, to podiums for vertical variety of the backing ensemble for character solos, all the while also providing storage for props and other hidden elements.  The backdrop of the stage carries over the square shapes with a chalkboard green hue to match the chalkboard painted floor on which the contestants personalise through the course of the performance.  Lucia Haddad utilises the square panels in the backdrop in her lighting design that ensures that eliminations are keenly felt.  She puts the contestants in the spotlight reinforcing the pressure that they feel to win while the various backstory pieces are given more fanciful and bolder lighting designs to increase the energy and emotion.

Adrienne Andrew’s costume design is on point in capturing the essence of each character, from Leaf Coneybear’s misaligned clothes that he has sewn himself, to Marcy Park’s preppy colour coordinated tartan skirt, tie and ribbons, William Barfée thick glasses and podiatrist approved sandals with socks, and Chip Tolentine’s New York Yankees baseball gear for the boy that will possibly grow up to be a typical jock, more interested in sex and sport.  Rona is perfectly sweet in shades of pink while Vice Principal Panch is easily recognisable for anyone that went to school in the 80’s or 90’s in his brown suit, brown shoes and too wide tie.

Dash Kruck has created one of the most consistently captivating pieces of theatre to grace the Hayes Theatre stage.  He has ensured that every performer understands their character so they can deliver honest and realistic expressions of the quirky group without resorting to caricature and deliver the characters with more dimension than simple stereotypes.  Each performer is a triple threat with consistently strong vocals that are delivered with texture, emotion and passion while retaining the various accents and nuances to vocal characteristics.  They all take on Vi Lam’s creative choreography which also incorporates sign language with a precision even when guiding the audience members around the stage.  Kruck also expands the original premise of the work to highlight the influence of adults on the young contestants and the stress the pressure from their parents, teachers, siblings and peers can have on a child.  While only Logainne’s dads feature in person (Duffy and Laga’aia), Leaf’s family are ‘pointed out’ as being in the audience but Olive’s parents predictably never turn up, except in her imagination (Retallick and Predny). 

This production of THE 25TH ANNUAL PUTNAM COUNTY SPELLING BEE is definitely worth seeing.  Regardless of whether you’ve participated in school academic competitions, or know someone, the characters and their anxieties are all relatable and if nothing else, you’ll learn all the oddly named South American rodents. 

The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee – Hayes Theatre Co