Village Presents a Highly Amped Up “Spelling Bee”

A moment from The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee (Mark Kitaoka)

The 25^th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee

Village Theatre

Issaquah:  Through 10/20/19, Everett: 10/25/18-11/17/19

Village Theatre is presenting a favorite of many high schools and colleges because it is about middle schoolers and eminently appropriate to stage for them. The 25^th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee can be quite subversive, though, and a lot of fun for grown ups to watch.

It is a strange-but-true aspect of putting on a show about middle schoolers at a theater like Village that means that all the middle schoolers are actually quite adult actors. Many of them still look close in age to middle school and the “suspension of disbelief” part of watching a play and pretending it’s really happening is pretty easy. One cast member here, though, is a bit too long in the tooth to have been cast as a thirteen-year-old.

 

But here they are, the individual and slightly neurotic spellers for whom this spelling bee means at least the world, if not the universe! Marcy Park (Arika Matoba) speaks six languages and feels under huge pressure to succeed to the point that she seems psychologically abused. Logainne Schwartzandgrubenierre (Sarah Russell) has two dads and a lisp and doesn’t want to let her family down. William Barfee (MJ Sieber) has a chronic sinus condition and a last name that invites pointed mispronunciation (it's supposed to rhyme with parfait). He has the most unusual way of figuring out spellings by drawing with his toe.

Olive Ostrovsky’s (Taylor Niemeyer) mom is in an Indian Ashram for the year and her dad seems to work all the time. Leaf Coneybear (Rafael Molina, with special amounts of energy) has been homeschooled and finds himself spelling through trance receivings. Chip Tolentino (Justin Huertas) won the Bee last year and is back to defend.

Supporting them and running the Bee and making sure the rules are rigorously met are Rona Lisa Perretti (Jessica Skerritt) who so fondly remembers her own Bee win that you’d think it was the highlight of her entire life, and Vice Principal Panch (Brian Lange) who has a murky past that might have involved some unseemly behavior at a prior Bee. Assisting is Mitch Mahoney (Nicholas Japaul Bernard) who is completing some required community service hours with his contributions.

Who knows if you could be picked to be part of the Bee? Four members of each audience are chosen to bee spellers (pun intended). These folks are carefully tended and shepherded through their roles as would be winners and gentle fun is poked at them, with generally huge applause from the remainder of the audience who is probably really happy it’s not them!

This production’s best-in-class are Niemeyer and Skerritt with their lovely voices and perfect matches to their characters needs. Niemeyer is sweet and plucky and earnestly striving and Skerritt, with her little clapping and constant thumbs up, is just fun to watch. Lange gets high marks for his underplayed Panch. His gravitas is a needed calm in the middle of a chaotic show that has been amped by director Brandon Ivie to a rather high level.

Molina carries off the hi-jinks of Leaf and demonstrates his strong singing, but he’s almost manically ADD. Sieber is rather too mean for this role that really ought to be a less alarming teddy bear growl.

The school room where this all takes place is lovingly created by Julia Hayes Welch and fun, crazy costumes are designed by Brynne McKeen. They include moments when Jesus shows up to talk to Marcy Park and other quick-change needs for actors who have to play parents and others and then turn back into middle schoolers in the blink of an eye.

Trina Mills creates some fun choreography for group singing. Robert J. Aguilar lights the stage with customary subtlety until flashy moments are needed. Brent Warwick blends the sound and Tim Symons music directs and leads the small capable band.

There are plenty of good jokes and apparently the writers of the Bee (William Finn, Rachel Sheinkin and Rebecca Feldman) allow jokes to be changed, because there are several very topical references made here that could never have been written in 2005! A now-famous song, My Unfortunate Erection, is still one that every owner of a penis will undoubtedly be able to empathize with.

It’s crowd-pleasing musical fun for most of the family. If you haven’t yet had your local school put it on, this will be a great introduction. If you have seen a school production, you might like seeing a fully-fleshed professional outing like this one.

For more information, go to www.villagetheatre.org or call 425-392-2202.