RPSPELLINGBEE

The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee __ Pros __ : 1. From the very start of the play, I got the feeling that //The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee// was not the typical musical. I was gleefully surprised that it was so different; different but good. I liked that they actually incorporated members of the audience in the show. This added to the comedy of the show and the spontaneity. I still can’t tell whether those people were planted in the audience or if they really were just regular audience members. I thought it was also interesting that they integrated very recent events into the script; I thought it was funny that they mentioned Lil’ Wayne’s release from prison, Ellen DeGeneres, Sarah Palin and the ‘suspicious package from Yemen’. 2. The costumes in this production were also very well done. Each child had their different personalities and their costumes definitely reflected that. The liberal girl who had the two dads was dressed in an assortment of bright colors with a jacket that had many buttons with sayings on them. The girl who was supposed to be very smart and disciplined was dressed in a Catholic school girl outfit, reflecting her ‘perfect student’ image. The boy dressed in pajamas was especially hilarious because he had a mullet and carried around a robot toy. That kind of explained how he was able to spell all of the words in his ‘robot’ voice. I felt that it was perfect that Ms. Peretti, dressed in the purple dress suit was dressed that way because it not only made her stand out, but also showed that she was clean-cut and liked to follow the rules. The only down side to her costume was that her wig was a little obvious and bad. However, when the actors had to make quick costume changes to play other characters, I felt that it went smoothly and in a timely fashion. 3. The acting and singing in this play was actually quite good. For the most part, the actors had nice voices and the acting was very skillful. They worked well singing together as well as when they each sang their solos. Also, I would imagine it would be hard to play a child character when you are college-age, but I felt the actors conveyed the youngness of their characters without being annoying or overacting. They expressed a certain child-like innocence through their characters, while at the same time saying adult humor. 4. The set of //The 25th Annual Putnam Spelling Bee// was very nicely done. I liked all of the sparkly bees glued all over the signs; it added a cuteness to the production. I also enjoyed reading the banners set on the stage (“Putnam Optometrists- You’ve got to see us to believe us”). It was also creative to allow the bleachers to be turned around and for the back of them to be unfolded to reveal a scene of the Taj Mahal for Olive Ostrovsky’s mother’s scene. I also noted that during the scene when her mother is ‘washing herself in the Ganges River’, the lighting made it look like light reflecting off of water. 5. This play was quite diverse in its moods. At times it was crazy and outrageous and at other times it was sad and sentimental; still other times it was cute and lovable. I loved that this production mixed so many various emotions in the dialogue and scenes. It created a well-rounded production that had the audience laughing hysterically, tearing up at sad parts and smiling at cute childish love.

__ Cons __ : 1. Although this was probably just the way that the character was written into the script, I felt that Ms. Peretti was very annoying; Her personality, her voice, her outfit and even her hair were very much overdone and exaggerated. Even in the opening scene when she pretends to be accepting her Spelling Bee trophy, I felt that it seemed contrived and typical of a washed up ‘pageant queen’. Her character was too much of a stereotype that I felt that I could predict how she would respond to something or act. 2. I was also confused as to what the small ‘x’ on each actors head was. At first I wondered if it was like a joke within the play, but when no reference was made about them, I realized that they must be a microphone of some sort of something that isn’t meant to show. I ended up wondering throughout the first half of the play what the ‘x’s were for and if they were meant to be seen by the audience. They weren’t that much of a distraction because after a while I didn’t notice them anymore, but it just had me wondering about them at the beginning. 3. One other thing about the production that was a bit annoying was the fact that Logainne SchwartzandGrubenierre spoke with a lisp. I understand that it was in the script that she should speak with a lisp, sometimes it was hard to hear what she was saying and if she spoke for a long time, it got irritating really fast. On that note however, if the actor herself didn’t really have a lisp in real life, she did a fantastic job of making her lisp seem natural. 4. I feel that the actor who played Mitch Mahoney was not a very good actor nor did he sing particularly well. I liked the idea behind his character, but I didn’t like the way that the actor performed and interpreted the character. At the times when he sang, he kind of sang-talked it and sounded even worse compared to the strong voices of the other actors. The part when he played the ‘black Jesus’ was very funny and he did a really good job for that scene, but otherwise his acting was mediocre. 5. Finally, I did not get the point of showing the spellers when they grew up. I guess they could have done that to convey to the audience that this Spelling Bee was more than a competition: it was a learning experience that added to their lives and helped them to grow up. But the way that that scene was performed seemed too random and quick. There was not enough back story to each character explaining the significance of the spelling bee to their lives.