University of Central Florida

The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee Play Critique

William Cole

THE 2000

Professor Sybil St. Claire

9/22/14
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The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee Play Critique

On the weekend of August 21st, 2014, the University of Central Floridas theatre

department put on their very own rendition of Broadways Tony Award winning musical The 25th

Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee at their on-campus black box stage to an audience of

underwhelming numbers. I left the show feeling entertained and satisfied, even a bit nostalgic

due to the fact that I performed in the show at my high schools production. Overall, I found the

show to be a hilarious take featuring some prevalent social issues, and besides some minor

technical issues and a specific miscasting, UCFs Spelling Bee was a delightful and

professionally well done show that Id recommend to anyone craving likable characters, a fast

paced story and a lot of laughs along the way.

Before beginning the critique, its important to understand the historical context of

Spelling Bee. Its book was written by Rachel Sheinkin and the music and lyrics were written by

William Finn. The show premiered February 7th, 2005 at the Second Stage Theatre in New York

City, and the Broadway version premiered in the same year directed by James Lapine. Rachel

Steinkin has been involved in the writing of other plays such as Little House on the Prairie,

Blood Drive, and Striking 12. That kind of resume tells me that she is a very diverse writer but

hasnt been involved in too many popular shows, as there was little information on her upon

searching. It seems Spelling Bee was her claim to fame, as she earned a Tony and Drama Desk

award for her involvement in its composition.

Historically, the context of Spelling Bee is very modern; it is easy to understand the

dialogue and character development throughout the show. UCFs production without a doubt

served the scripts original intention; to present todays stereotypical children participating in an

event that seems innocent enough on the surface, but is perfect for gradually revealing the
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emotional (and sometimes parental) demons that plague the contestants. I know from doing the

show myself that Steinkin had a very specific image in her mind for what each character in the

show should look, talk, and feel like, and the UCF production followed suit flawlessly.

Spelling Bee is best summarized as overburdened school children competing in a local

spelling bee (who would have guessed?) in a comedy that underhandedly addresses many of

todays social issues. Six intelligent yet immature grade-schoolers compete for a shot to go to the

National Spelling Bee in Washington D.C., and aspects of their personal life and problems

emerge as the Bee the progresses. The main character list basically consists of the whole cast,

and all except for one have their spotlights in monologues/solos. I personally rooted for Leaf

Coneybear to win the competition because of all the belittlement he received, even though he did

seem to be blissfully ignorant of it. The rest of the characters were generally easy to love but I

did not like Vice Principal Douglass Panch. It was never explained why he had an anger issue,

nor did I care that he had one. He was a pretty bland character that shouldve been explored

further because of how small the cast was. There is no excuse for having a total of eight

characters on stage for the entirety of a Broadway length musical and not knowing at least some

detail of each of their personal histories or private lives. The story ended with William Barfee

winning the spelling bee, and an epilogue of all the characters, who all receive happy endings.

All the conflicts are resolved at this point, from Barfee growing up to make friends and being

handsome, to Olive receiving her entrance fee from a now levelheaded Vice Principal Panch

disguised as the runner up prize. After the big finale, this small gesture brings you back to

reality; no matter how smart, kids are still kids at the end of the day and none of them caught on

to the fact that the money came from Panchs pocket. The spellers celebrate with Olive, and

Rona, the spelling bee coordinator, acknowledges Panchs generosity in their stead.
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Like the story, the production aesthetics were also very good with some minor

complaints. The acting was good all around, the best in my opinion coming from Tony Pracek

(Leaf Coneybear). The worst by a landslide was Chris Armellinos portrayal of Chip Tolentino,

which consisted of mediocre, unexciting acting paired with little to no vocal talent. Armellino

couldnt even hit the notes in his own solo, making me question how he got the part in the first

place. Choreography was okay, nothing really mind blowing, but kept the underpopulated stage

busy during the musical numbers. Costume changes were subtle and non-intrusive, but thats a

give in. If you cannot pull off a stealthy stage costume change you probably shouldnt have been

accepted into a universitys theatre program. Music, other than Amellinos solo which was

absolute garbage and Willow Drapper (Marcy Park)s dull Six Languages (underwhelming

vocals) was excellent. Amanda Morgan (Rona Lisa Peretti) and Katherine Darby (Olive) had

beautiful voices and great range, Leigh Green (Logainne), Austin Palmer (Barfee), and Pracek

had great singing voices as well that matched their characters nicely. However, above all,

Raleigh Mosely playing the part of the thuggish comfort counselor Mitch Mahoney blew

everyone else out of the water in terms of raw singing talent. His voice is one of the greatest I

have ever heard live and I hope he continues performing for years to come.

The show was not very heavily reliant on production aesthetics but they are worth

mentioning anyway, as collectively the technical department did a good job. The costumes were

well made, and the designer did a good job following the character descriptions straight out of

the book and not trying to get too creative with it. The lighting direction was also fine, and the

slow motion scene was very well done. Set design was what it was; an elementary school

auditorium. It looked very life-like, almost like you could go down the street to your local

elementary school and just base it off theirs! Sound, on the other hand, was pretty poor. The
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volume teetered at times, and Jesuss voice sounded like it came from a childrens toy; unclear

and scratchy. I understand that the voice of the divine in theatre is just a guy sitting backstage

with a microphone, but as an audience member Im not supposed to think of that the second he

starts speaking. Of all the professional grade microphones they had, the production team decided

to give the knockoff to God himself? Talk about disrespect. Lastly, the style of the show was

fresh and homely; there was a likeliness to the accurate portrayal of an elementary school

auditorium, and I even felt a bit of nostalgia when I walked through the doors for the first time.

The audience was surprisingly small, even with the students present for their mandatory

viewing for class. However, of the attendees, all of them found the show hysterical, myself

included. The show-goers for the most part was homogeneous; almost everyone in the crowd was

a college student except for the token elderly couples who probably hold season passes and go to

every show. There was audience participation at a few points in the show and it was very hit or

miss depending on who was selected to go onstage. Dont get me wrong, the actors did great and

the improv was funny, however when the audience volunteer tried too hard to steal the spotlight

it took away greatly from the humor. If youre ever lucky enough to be called onstage to

participate, you should never do this. This isnt your show, dont be a try-hard because nobody,

especially the actors youre trying to impress, appreciates it. When I went this only happened

once and it wasnt super detrimental, but maybe in the future the technical team should try to

scope out the shyer prospective volunteers to come up to the stage so we, the audience, get the

full effect of the gimmick. Furthermore, the event, as far as I can tell, was not being presented for

any demographic in specific. Its a Broadway show put on by the unrightfully unpopular UCF

theatre program; they cant afford to narrow down an already lackluster potential audience pool.
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In the end, Spelling Bee was a fun and masterful portrayal of contemporary children and

the difficulties they face. The only glaring issues fell on Chips actor and subsequently his

director, however his poor performance and the sound issues were not show breaking. UCFs

Spelling Bee lives up to my standard of good theatre due to the overall great quality of acting,

singing, and direction. I would without a doubt recommend Spelling Bee to a friend, especially if

said friend isnt really a theatre person because theres a good chance theyll find the show

hilarious and want to explore other musicals. The production was created to invoke lots of

laughter while at the same time raising awareness to many of todays social issues. I am proud to

say the Knights theatre department fully delivered. From doing the show myself, I can tell you

the script is very tightly written, leaving little to no room for misinterpretation of the characters,

their personalities, and their problems. Its a hard show to screw up. If I had to rate the

University of Central Floridas production of Spelling Bee out of ten, Id give it a solid seven,

and I will definitely be joining the talented students of UCF for more of their theatrical

performances in the future.

Word Count: 1640

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Works Cited

"Faculty Directory - Graduate Musical Theatre Writing." Tisch School of the Arts at NYU.

New York University. Print.

Sheinkin, Rachel, William Finn, and Jay Reiss. The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling

Bee. New York City: Second Stage Theatre, 2005. Print.

"THE 25TH ANNUAL PUTNAM COUNTY SPELLING BEE." UCF Theatre.

University of Central Florida. Web. 20 Sept. 2014.