It’s time for the “25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee,” where children are put to the task of spelling the names of various diseases and South American rodents they’ve never heard of.
It’s also the name of the Peterborough Players newest show. With music and lyrics by William Finn, and written by Rachel Sheinkin, the two act-play is directed and choreographed by Jen Wineman for the Players stage.
This was the most fun I’ve had watching a performance for a long time. The mix of stageplay and audience participation, leading to some very funny improv, made the play feel fresh and interesting, with a lot of laughs. It’s not the most-serious production I’ve ever seen, but it certainly does make you smile.
I attended the preview night of the play, which included the first act of this romp. It is as much comedy as it is musical, which mixes in audience performance into an already chaotic cast of middle school characters with a host of quirks.
As the title suggests, the plot of the show revolves around six children ruthlessly competing to be the spelling bee champion, presided over by a former spelling champ, a vice principal and a comfort counselor who is fulfilling his community service hours.
But wait! The cast members who have been rehearsing the play for the last few weeks weren’t the only ones on the stage. Audience members have the opportunity to sign up in the lobby for a chance to become fill-in spellers on stage. Sometimes this adds to the hilarity — the judges were somewhat flummoxed by one audience member who correctly spelled “caterdoon,” a word she was clearly meant to flub and see her off stage.
The show got some big laughs from the audience, and the humor can be surprisingly adult, considering the tween-ish age of the characters. The songs are fun, but lean more to the goofy than lyrically profound. Songs like “Magic Foot” (about one character’s habit of spelling a word on the ground with his foot before spelling) are more funny than catchy, but they get good laughs.
The characters, despite a good-sized cast for the Players stage, are quick to distinguish themselves, often having a single defining characteristic (the jock, the over-achiever, the free-spirited homeschooler, the one with the allergies) to build an identity around, but they don’t feel one-note — these feel like real kids, despite being played by adult actors.
The set is like every middle school gymnasium you’ve ever been in, and the cast takes full advantage. During the song “Pandemonium,” when the youths go off the rails over the unfairness of the word difficulty from one speller to the next, it’s hard to pick a favorite moment, as each cast member seems to be doing something different and funny with a background object. In fact, small background interactions may have been some of my favorite parts of the show; subtle though they may be, they add a lot of character and humor to the performance.
There is a lot of hidden detail in the set, where very small things do a lot of environmental storytelling. Despite how deadly seriously every single participant and the judges are taking the bee, the banner has a hastily, and somewhat crookedly taped “5” on the “25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee” in the manner of every school that just didn’t have the funds for a new banner every year.
This really feels like an ensemble show, despite the fact that several cast members had solo songs, all well sung. Robert Ariza as William Barfee with “Magic Foot,” Brian Owen as Leaf Coneybear with “I’m Not That Smart,” Dwayne Washington as comfort counselor Mitch Mahoney with “Prayer of the Comfort Counselor” were standout solo-led performances, but for me, the group numbers, particularly “Pandemonium,” were the most fun to watch.
The show isn’t perfect, with some audio mixing issues where the singers were a bit drowned out by the music, and some of the off-color humor for me was a bit cringe-inducing, even if it was good for a giggle.
Ashley Saari can be reached at 603-924-7172, Ext. 244 or asaari@ledgertranscript.com. She’s on X @AshleySaariMLT.