There are few things quite like a school spelling bee. For the smart kids among us, the chance to get up and test the largeness of your vocabulary is an excellent challenge. Depending on your grade and level of expertise, the challenge becomes downright thrilling, rivaling the best sports ever put to a field. In this case, it’s almost more intense as everyone gathers before a room of judgmental eyes, where everyone wants to see you fail, and try to remember how to spell syzygy (syzygy, S-Y-Z-Y-G-Y, syzygy). Just one mistake, and you’re out. Next to the intensity of performing theater, it’s one of the most nerve-racking rites of passage for the youthful demographic. So why not put them together and have some real fun?
Following the success of the decades-long gestation of his masterpiece Falsettos, William Finn created one of the liveliest, unique shows in 21st century Broadway theater. It’s a show that can’t be done justice via bootlegs or even a cast recording. While those can capture moments that are in themselves funny, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee is a chance for performers to not only spell words, but mix a grounded story with a lot of improvisation. There’s audience interaction and the spontaneity of words becomes just as fun to hear the judges determine what questions are too dumb to answer. Even if this is a show where everyone is designed to be a child, it’s one that tickles the hearts of grown-ups all too familiar with how the world has let them down. Think of it like A Chorus Line but with juice boxes on the way out.
In the case of the production put on by The Long Beach Playhouse, they recreate The Putnam County location in a mischievous manner. Along the walls of the theater are photographs of previous “winners,” which includes teen photos of various figures, including a Mickey Mouse Club era Ryan Gosling and Leonardo DiCaprio. There’s plenty of jokes to be found within the venue before the curtains have even risen. Actors run around the lobby talking to guests while in character. Some of them are just having fun while others are looking for participants in the actual stage performance. For those keen enough to snoop on conversations, certain details may lose suspense. For everyone else, it’s the unexpected thrill that gives each performance its own joy. To make matters even better, there are even characters running around the set. Given that some are as young as 12, there’s a game of tag where characters with limitless energy seem to zoom from one side to the other. It’s the best way to build an atmosphere and an example of what makes the show special.
Again, it’s best to witness the show for yourself. While an arguable 75% of the show is grounded in a scripted nature, the rest is where the fun begins. The judges have the sense of being initially passionate about education but slowly lose interest in the greater contest. Elsewhere, there are characters embodying every type of student from the dorky child to absentee parents and even overachievers who frankly are two months away from being a former gifted child. Everything is pitched up for the sake of comedy, where one character’s last name is mistaken as Barfy (it’s actually Barfee, pronounced Bar-fay). These geniuses don’t always make sense in the same room, yet there is something to watching somebody try to spell words. Some are hard, but others, like “Mexican” are used as curveballs as jokes. Similarly, the judges have great definitions to keep everyone on their toes.
The music within itself is fine. While it’s not on par with Falsettos, it all conveys the interiority of its characters with a zippy pathos. Some songs are more sincere, capturing the pressures of high performance activities. Others are designed as over the top embarrassment for the losing contestants. As the bleachers are rolled around, the actors sing in a joyful tone “Goodbye” as another hands them a juice box. It’s all surprisingly sweet and it’s fun to watch the participants break into laughter. There’s no certainty how long anything will last, so it’s best to just give in and appreciate the mixture of scripted and improvisational comedy. By the time of intermission, the antics are back on and it never feels like you’re not in Putnam County with these characters. Some are even noticed being interviewed about their hobbies while others pass around signature sheets to have the judge fired. It’s never a dull moment and one that benefits from its immersive technique.
On the one hand, it’s got a predictable winner takes all structure that is difficult to find much suspense in. However, it’s the ride to the finale that ultimately makes it something greater. It’s allowed to be truly absurd, even featuring one character singing about how his erection was his undoing. Others fly around the room with capes and spell words out with their foot. It’s not traditional theater but one that sadly hasn’t become more popular in the 20+ years since its release. More shows should be aspiring to the unknown, to allow local casts to challenge what a stage can hold. This one even pours out into the audience, allowing for a true sense of this cast being brought to the venue by their parents.
What it lacks in flashiness it more than makes up for with a cleverness and ability to never lose pacing. Everything has a life to it that encourages the audience to stay engaged, wondering if they come back another night how different things would be. Kudos to the cast put together by The Long Beach Playhouse for managing to convey the highwire, juvenile antics of these characters and managing to make them nonsensical one minute and then the perfect cross-section of competitive America the next. It’s a modest show that works based on the cast one sees. In this case, it’s easy to believe that each of the characters will be crying to their parents in the backseat on the way home. It’s like how a normal spelling bee feels, and that is the greatest gift it can offer. It’s not about who wins. The audience does. It’s about recognizing the stage fright in all of us and the way comedy disarms that tension. It may lack grandiosity, but it has a lot of other good words to make up for it.
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