MASpelling+Bee

The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee Michael Ackerman 11/15/10 When I went to go see “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee,” my hopes were high before even setting foot in the theatre. I had seen a high school production of this show last year and loved it. UGA's production of the show had the same effect on me. It is easy to think of qualities I loved about the show, but it is difficult to find negative characteristics. My favorite parts of the production were the songs, the character Mitch Mahoney, the humorous situations, the costumes, and the ending. My least favorite parts were the audience members on stage, the vulgarity of language, the set, the fact that Barfee wins, and the sound system. The best part of the entire production is, by far, the music. As a musical, “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee” should have good music, but the scores in UGA's production exceeded expectations. The band that played onstage was fantastic; I never heard them miss a note. The singers were very talented as well. I thought it was really funny how some of the actors would sing in the voices of their characters, using lisps and high pitches. Also, the songs themselves were fantastic. I still have “Pandemonium” stuck in my head. Everyone in the audience seemed to love the music too; I heard several foots tapping along to the beat during every song. The high quality of music caused my friends and I to leave the theater singing. My second favorite aspect of the production was the character Mitch Mahoney. The actor playing this part did a stupendous job. Mitch's presence added a lot of humor to the play by contrasting so violently with the innocent nature of the children. The angst and scariness of Mitch were easy to see from the onset of the play, and they made the fact that he was wearing a bumble bee costume even more hilarious. The actor's use of facial expressions were a hit with the audience as well. Even when dancing with the rest of the cast, Mitch had an angry glare on his face. The character also endeared himself to the audience during his monologue, in which he expresses genuine concern for the children. In his own way, Mitch states that he wishes that he could “beat some sense into them.” The thug wants the children to understand how trivial the spelling bee is in the long run. It pains him to see the spellers so stressed out and upset about such a relatively unimportant matter. This concern creates depth in the character of Mitch that otherwise would not have existed. The humor, some of which is created by Mitch, is also one of the distinctive aspects of the production. The outrageous nature of the characters contributed strongly to the comedy of the play. For example, the character Leaf Coneybear's robot-like antics and song about his hair made the whole audience erupt in laughter. Another hilarious scene is the one involving Jesus. I thought it was really funny that he referred to himself as “black Jesus.” I also loved the comedy surrounding the girl with the two fathers. The dysfunctional relationship between those three characters was really entertaining to watch. Another great aspect of the comedy was the definitions of various words. The most memorable one in my mind is “Guacamole- the Mexican pudding.” The costumes were also quite excellent. My favorite of the costumes was Leaf Coneybear's. His mullet, mole, and robot t-shirt completed his character. The actor looked simply ridiculous. I also appreciated the attire of Logainne SchwartzandGrubenierre. She was dressed outrageously with a lot of buttons and a lot of rainbow-colored clothing. In short, every one of the actors were wearing outrageous clothes that perfectly suited their respective characters. Another part of the play that I really liked was the ending, when the characters returned to the stage, fully grown. I found the stories of what they went on to do entertaining. I especially liked how Leaf's story was just “I have cats!” It was completely unpredicted, and it showed that he never grew out of his strangeness, a fact which the audience found delightful. I also liked how the other characters related their futures to the action on stage, such as Chip referring to his unfortunate erection and Barfee becoming “incredibly handsome,” as his mother predicted. I thought that Mitch's story was the best because it showed how his character developed due to the events in the play. He made a career of helping others as a result of the spelling bee, and everyone he touched were extremely grateful. It was a touching story. One of my least favorite aspects of this production of the play was the audience members onstage. When I attended the high school performance of “Spelling Bee,” the spellers that were called up on stage were much more reactive and fun to watch than the ones at the UGA production. I found that the participating audience members at the UGA show seemed disinterested and seemed to expect what was going to happen. I also found it annoying when these spellers would not speak into the microphone; the audience could not hear them, making their presence awkward and unsatisfactory. I also did not enjoy how vulgar the dialogue was in the play. The characters who are supposed to be children were speaking as though they were sailors. I found it a little disconcerting. I did not expect such language because I had seen this show performed only once before, and that production was by a high school where they censured the script to make it more family-friendly. I found that the curse words spewing out of the actors' mouths were distracting from what they were attempting to articulate and made me sympathize with them less. I believe that the play could be improved if the script was less vulgar in nature. Another aspect of the play that I did not enjoy was the set. I found the set boring and unoriginal. It consisted of only bleachers, a sign proclaiming the Spelling Bee's existence, and the judges' table. I guess that the set designer wanted to be sure not to distract the audience from the comedy of the play with an elaborate set. However, I think that the set was lacking. It was not interesting to look at, and it looked like just another gymnasium. A fourth characteristic of the play that I do not appreciate is who wins in the end. William Barfee is my least favorite character. I find him pompous, rude, and full of himself. I also thought his voice was annoying. I disliked how the character looked, and I hated the pageantry with which he used his “magic foot.” When he was named the winner, I felt as though he was undeserving of being the champion. However, in his epilogue, the character states that he only got 42 th in the national spelling bee, which cheered me up immensely. At least he did not become nationally known as a great speller! The final critique I have for “The 25 th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee” is that the sound system was lacking. During several of the musical numbers, the microphones would cut in and out. This happened a lot especially with Mitch Mahoney. I also encountered trouble hearing audience members attempt to spell and converse with the judges. The lack-luster sound system took away from the pleasure of watching a great performance and listening to good music.