The “25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee” is a one act musical that- you guessed it- chronicles six children competing in a spelling bee.
In 2005, it was nominated for six tony awards, winning two, including one for Best Book, which it richly deserved as it is a very cute and witty script.
Anyone who has ever been in a spelling bee will love the lead up to and the song “Pandemonium,” which laments the seeming discrepancy in difficulty of words that are randomly doled out to the participants.
And some of the definitions and usage of the assigned words are laugh out loud funny.
Unfortunately, this particular production is hit or miss . . . mostly miss. For a performance that only runs 90 minutes with no intermission, this production feels very long.
The pacing is herky-jerky. It will clip along one moment and then come to a screeching halt the next.
This is largely to do with a disconnect between the blocking and choreography. Instead of flowing smoothly and organically from dialogue to number, back to dialogue these transitions generally involve the majority, if not all, of the cast relocating to a different part of the stage before the action can continue.
Applause from the numbers should have covered at least some of this lag time; however, the majority of the cast does not have strong enough singing voices to handle the songs that they were given, and those that do lack the acting chops.
As such the applause after the numbers was rarely long enough to sustain the transitions.
The two bright spots in the production came from Darcy Silveira as Logainne and Candice Courtney as Olive.
Silveira does a great job taking Logainne from a head-strong young girl who lives to please her two dads, to a young woman who takes responsibility for her own fate and actions.
Her growth is undeniable, especially in the two numbers “Woe is Me” and “Woe is Me (Reprise).Courtney brings to Olive not only an outstanding voice, but a charm and vulnerability that makes you want to run up onstage, give her a hug and reassure her that everything is going to be all right.
Her part in “The I Love you Song” is hauntingly beautiful and a stark reminder of how quickly children are forced to grow up when ignored by their parents.
Theatre Palisades
Through May 12
Tickets: www.theatrepalisades.com or 310-454-1970
Kat Michels is a two time regional Emmy award-winning writer with an AAS in video production and a BFA in theatre.
