JPSPELLING

Jenna Pallansch 15 November 2010 "The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee"

Overall, “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee” is a light-hearted musical with a delightful atmosphere even though some of the musical scores were off and characterization was excessively exaggerated at times. I really enjoyed the production; the characters were bright, the band was talented, and the songs were extremely fun. “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee” is a presentational play, with actors that play multiple roles and direct audience participation. Three audience members were brought onstage throughout the performance, and the improvisation was strained during these parts. The one-liners of the play, particularly in the sentences for each word, were consistently funny. The pros of the play include the set, the actors, the interaction with the audience, the costumes, and the humor. Negatives of the production were in the song “I Love You,” the dimensionality of the characters, the repetitive nature of the play, the sound quality, and the mixed content. The setting was highly stylized but meshed well with the over-all production. The bleacher style seats of the contestants were reminiscent of a gymnasium—a place that serves as the perfect stereotypical reminder of the trials of middle-school and burgeoning adolescence. The rotating bleacher during the song “Pandemonium” was appropriate for the part and funny to see the faces of the audience members that had been brought up to sit on them. The cartoon bees that adorned the banners fit in with the mood of the play: cute but mildly creepy. The many different levels of the stage kept the sight interesting as well as added to the sense of pressure as the contestants stood at the microphone, with the reader and contestants looming above them. Overall, the simplistic but moving set contributed to the imaginative and bright atmosphere of the play. The little surprises, such as the rotating trophy case to reveal Black Jesus were wonderful additions to the performance. The characters are endearing both in their lines and in the actors' portrayal. Each of the six characters have their own stereotypical role, but they were brought to life in a refreshing way without being overly cliché. The actors were talented and enthusiastic throughout the performance although this may have been heightened by the fact I saw the show opening night. The actress that played Rona had an exceptional voice, and all of the actors managed to keep their character's lisps or high-pitched voices even while singing. The actor that played Mitch Mahoney's character was extremely humorous and played a multitude of roles well. His facial expressions, particularly while wearing a bumblebee costume with pompoms on his headband, were easily the funniest part of the show. I enjoyed the audience participation as well. It was entertaining to watch the audience members selected as they watched the production as well as got their own shot at spelling and their own inevitable juice box and tissues. The candy thrown into the audience was also distracting but certainly a fun addition. The presentational format was more engaging than a typical production as a passive audience member. The costumes of the characters reflected the stereotypical roles of each adolescent. With the number of characters, this certainly helped the audience to easily spot and keep straight the problems and personalities of each. Marcy Park looked like the typical private-schooled, perfect child. Her neat uniform and braided pigtails clearly reflected youth and good manners. Leaf Coneybear's robot shirt was a little redundant given the robot clutched in his hand, but perhaps the over-the-top robot obsession is appropriate given the characters sudden robot voice during spelling. His makeup was excessive but it successfully made the actor look younger and fit with the pajama bottoms he wore, not to mention the rather terrifying mullet. The boy looked the youngest out of the group with his costume and acted that way as well. Logainne's costume was almost painfully bright. The rainbow patterns of her tights, the skirt, vest, and many buttons and pins exaggerated her already exaggerated character. While her personality is already captured in her painful lisp and frequent political statements and did not need the additional help of buttons and rainbows on her tights, it created an entertaining picture and unforgettable character. The humorous elements of the play made the entire production entertaining and fun. From the somewhat juvenile humor in songs like “My Unfortunate Erection” to the one-liners in each example sentence for the words, there was scarcely a moment when the audience wasn't laughing. At times the play wandered off into too ludicrous a direction such as “The Magic Foot” but it still meshed well with the wacky characters of each scene. The dialogue was well written and the actors brought the lines expertly to life. The songs didn't really contribute to the play; they didn't have the same integral function of most musicals but were entertaining and fun for the most part. “I'm Not That Smart” was very cute and humorous and “My Unfortunate Erection” was hysterical even with its more crude humor. Dixon's character as the doctor in “I Love You” took away from the performance; he did not have half the vocal capabilities of Rona's character and their voices did not mesh well. The song also carried on longer than it should have, though perhaps this is because it was hard to become engaged with the song when the vocal performance was distracting. The song also seemed particularly out of place, as most of the play had a much lighter mood with limited character development. The stereotypical characters successfully made the play humorous, but it made the more “serious” moments feel out of place and uninteresting. Olive's character seemed incongruent with the performance, and the ending of the play seemed anti-climactic and misplaced because no character experienced any real growth. The vice-principal's character also became too overdramatic and unbelievable to the point that he really wasn't entertaining. While I thought the costumes were appropriate in concept, they were put together rather poorly. I wasn't even that close to the stage but could clearly see the tape on several of the poorly fitting wigs. The microphones taped to their foreheads was also distracting and confusing in the beginning. Leaf's makeup was also excessive to the point of being a little disturbing, and his wig had the most obvious taping. The sound quality of the play was off which was especially noticeable during some of the songs. The microphones were inconsistent and the songs occasionally seemed to quiet or far too loud. The microphones cut in and out repeatedly which was distracting and made it difficult to become engaged in the performance. I thought the production was also a little confused for its target audience. The play contained political and more mature humor, but also threw candy out at the audience and had a song about a “Magic Foot.” The childish aspects of the play conflict with the language each character uses, even the children's characters. It seemed inappropriate given the mixing of humor and style. I felt they should have chosen either to clean up the content a little, or make a point to be vulgar.