Reviewed
by Will Stackman
What's
most surprising about "The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee" is that this cinfection
won the 2004 Tony for Best Book For A musical show. This 90 minute piece is
more like a series of sketches on a TV variety show arranged in chronological
order. William Finn's score consequently functions more like a song-cycle or an
integrated musical review. The characters are cartoonlike, which is what one
would expect from a project that began as an improv show,
"C-R-E-P-U-S-C-U-L-E," conceived by Rebecca Feldman and performed by
the Farm. The total effect is a bit mean-spirited, like much quick comedy,
relying on broad impersonations. The children at this Bee are all
idiosyncratic--to say the least--with their intellectual abilities seen as part
of abnormal personalities. That each theoretically learns something about
themselves is supposed to justify the public humiliation implied. The fact that
there's not one hypothetically normal contestant reinforces the view that
intelligence is probably a social handicap.
That
said, James Lapine's
enlargement of the original off-Broadway production, which originated at the
Barrington Stage Company in western Massachusetts, is a blueprint for turning a
little show into something big enough to put on a standard Broadway stage.
True, Boston's Wilbur is the smallest of the town's legacy stages and only the
orchestra and the mezzanine balcony are being used for this production, which
began its open-ended run early in the fall season. But the staging is crisp; Beowulf
Boritt's set
provides depth when appropriate while keeping the action tight and downstage
center. At the piano stage left, music director Janet Roma, one of Boston's most flexible,
is in tight control of the show aided by video and backed by a small ensemble
discretely just offstage. Jennifer Caprio's costumes, done for the Barrington production,
are central to the stereotyped characterizations.
The
current cast, several of whom have participated in runs elsewhere and on tour,
form a polished ensemble and do their best to bring their charges to life. The
center of the action is Jared Gertener as William Barfee, a health-challenged
know-it-all, whose "magic foot" enables him to spell words out with a
peculiar dance step. His closest rival, previously seen here two years ago in
Stoneham's "Lizzie Borden", is Sarah Inbar as Logainne
Schwartzandgrubniere, who has two daddies. But he falls for Olive Ostrovsky,
played by Jenni Barber. Olive is the closet to a normal pre-teen in the show, though she's
wearing pink overalls and her mother_s off in India at an ashram.
The
other three students include Stanley Bahorek as homeschooler Leaf Coneybear,
one of a large hippie clan theoretically seated in all of the third row. The
show starts off with Chip Tolentino, wearing his Scout uniform, played by Aaron
J. Albano, who's
the first real contestant eliminated but not really gone. His funniest routine
is pelting the audience with snacks during the show's faux intermission.
Finally there's Marcy Park, also in uniform , as a Korean parochial school whiz
played by Veronica Reyes. Each of these young musical comedy performers brings considerable
charm to their essentially one-note roles. The adults in the show are a former
winner, Rona Lisa Peretti--now in real estate--played by Elsa Carmona who serves the contest
moderator, New York veteran Daniel Pearce as Daniel Panch, the vice-principal who reads the
words and their definitions, and James Monroe Igleheart as Mitch Maloney, who doing his community service
as the contest's comfort councilor. Igleheart and Bahorek also play Logainne's
fathers, while Igleheart and Carmona briefly appear as Olive's parents.
Finn's
music for this misfit ensemble isn't as challenging as some of his earlier
projects but it does have an appropriate sense of fun. Like the cast, the score
doesn't have much of a center. The individual stories of the several characters
are supported by a few numbers, but in general the whole thing is an
entertainment rather than a drama, a gentle parody without much insight. There
are few surprises. Everyone's oddities are front and center, there's very
little to be discovered, which make the growing self-awareness of the
contestants seem a bit forced. Like these kids, "...Spelling Bee"
wants to be liked, but doesn't seem sure it should be. The show is however
likely to become a favorite for small productions, both professional and
amateur.