The 25th Annual Putnam County SPELLING BEE

Music and Lyrics by William Finn

Written by Rachel Sheinken

September 9 - October 17, 2010

Box Office (413) 747-7797

Happy Times at the Majestic

Reviewed by Donna Bailey-Thompson

Putnam County’s school gymnasium staged at the Majestic is a happy, silly, at times nerdy, even laughingly shocking venue for a pseudo-serious competition – The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee.

Second childhoods with permission to be cut-ups – innuendoes, unsheathed barbs – memories that sting and fantasies that elevate expectations – are stirred, along with a dozen musical numbers, into the melting pot of an American public school.

There’s just enough suspense as to who wins to keep a corner of the audience’s brains engaged. Otherwise, just relax. After a long hot summer, the populace has earned, at the least, a fun-night out.

Danny Eaton, the Majestic’s founder and driving force, has assembled a strong cast to open the 2010-2011 season. The delightful musical dramady, winner of a Broadway Tony, borrows aspects from A Chorus Line: five contestants share their fears and desires about winning just as chorus line auditioners bare their desperate needs to be hired. However, Spelling Bee is not as tense or serious. Situational humor keeps laughing primed while the occasional song lifts the tempo.

Among other reasons, the Majestic is noted for its realistic set designs. The gym is so realistic, one can almost catch a whiff of the lockers – a molded bleacher section, cork bulletin board, the double swinging door (be prepared!). At the utilitarian desk sit vice-principal Douglas Panch (fittingly officious Tim Cochran) and Rona Lisa Perretti, years back a Bee winner (Lori Efford, who not only can spell but sing beautifully). Then there’s Mitch Mahoney (loose-as-a-goose Luis Manzi) who doubles as a security officer and/or gym rat. Not so incidentally, the set design is by Danny Eaton.

Clambering on the bleacher are the contestants: adolescent Chip Tolentino who suffers with a young swain’s curse (played by Stephen Petit with bemused embarrassment; his Act Two opening number, Chip’s Lament, is a hoot); Logainne Schwartzandgrubeniere (perplexed Annie Kerins) whose two fathers double as her mother; Leaf Coneybear who claims he’s “ not that smart, whose happy outlook refreshes (Troy Pepicelli exudes nutty energy); William Barfee’s spelling self-assurance in another would be obnoxious but as played by Steve Gagliastro is endearing; the rubber-limbed extrovert Marcy Park (Sacha Iskra), played Kim in the Majestic’s memorable Miss Saigon); and Olive Ostrovsky (a serious, reflective Hilary Buxbaum) who with Rona Lisa and Mitch Mahoney sing The I Love You Song with enough passion to stop the show.

This talented mixture of personalities responds well to Meghan Lynn Allen’s crisp direction. Musical Director Amy Robert-Crawford at the keyboard, Ray Dandurand (percussion) and Cliff Schofer (reeds) call attention to themselves when appropriate but otherwise are proper accompanists. Karan McMahon contributes interesting choreography.

The wise and wily Daniel D. Rist’s lighting designs key Spelling Bee’s moods, be they pensive or exuberant, in effect, lighting evoking invisible actors.

The season is off to a promising start. Next will be Escanaba In Love, followed by Proof, The Savannah Disputation, and The Odd Couple.

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ART