“The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee” by Village Kidstage

Review by Darren Oke

Comical, irreverent, insightful.  “The 25^th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee” is a very popular musical these days, and rightfully so.  For a show with a relatively small cast and very simple sets, it packs a simple story with a lot of humor and entertaining revelations about the backstories of its characters…much the way “A Chorus Line” does, though in a very different setting.

Village Kidstage puts on top-notch performances that my family and I have enjoyed many times now, so I knew I was going to see a great production of this musical.  A well-chosen cast of talented singers and actors tackled this script and score and made it look easy, engaging the whole audience the entire time.

The story obviously centers around a spelling bee.  It is organized by Rona Lisa Perelli (Brianna McDonough Stiegler), a former bee champion who has maintained her all-too-great fascination with the event for over 20 years now, and by Doug Panche (Ian Edlund), the Vice Principal.  It features six unique and vastly different spelling finalists:  Chip Tolentino (Coleman Cummings), a Boy Scout and returning champion from last year; Olive Ostrovsky (Domini LaRussa), a sweet but lonely and neglected girl; Logainne Schwartzandgrubenniere (Alison Ayubi), proud daughter of a gay couple and the ultimate young political activist; Leaf Coneybear (Wolfgang Eastman), a rather manic oddball of a kid who doesn’t understand the trance he goes into when its time to spell a word; Marcy Park (Emily Bailey), a rigidly disciplined overachiever who is rather tired of having to always be the best; and William Barfee’ (Joseph Vito Zingarelli), a spastic, self-assured, hypochondriacal geek who uses a unique “magic foot” method for spelling.  Rounding out the cast is the “comfort counselor”, a role ironically filled by a chip-on-his-shoulder ex-con named Mitch Mahoney (Sam Capeloto).

I had a rather unique experience with this show, as I wound up actually being in it myself!  The script calls for four audience members to be used as spelling bee contestants along with the six from the cast.  Like most people there, I filled out a brief survey form before the show started, and I was startled when my name was called during the performance.  Three other people and I were thrust into the action as spellers, being guided by the cast through the blocking of a couple simple dance numbers as well.  I was stuck on stage for most of the first act, and as the last guest eliminated, I had to endure a lengthy and embarrassing send-off serenade from Mitch Mahoney before returning to my seat!

The actors in this play had a great time becoming their characters.  As Barfee’, Zingarelli had a fantastic repertoire of twitches, hang-ups, evil stares and goofy grins, and it was fascinating to watch all the little things he did to make his character complete.  For example, since he requires a large amount of personal space, he kept neurotically gesturing at me to scoot further down the bench during various scenes so I wouldn’t be too close to him, and he also celebrated each of his turns to spell with a big swaying of his hips to get into correct posture.  I also endured VERY cold, icy glares from Bailey as Marcy, the ice queen, who puts up with NO nonsense from anyone!  I am guessing this is a girl you do NOT want to get into an argument with.  She also played an impressive trumpet solo in her feature song.

Brianna McDonough Stiegler is a fantastic singer, and did a great job as perky Rona Lisa.  Domini LaRussa is also a very strong singer, and a wonderful actress whose expressive portrayal of the innocent Olive was warm and heartfelt.  As Chip, Coleman Cummings took on one of the more courageous, leave-your-dignity-at-the-door roles in theater, and boldly embraced his character’s “awkward moment” scene and rather humiliating song!  Kudos to this brave young man, who even had his family in the audience for it!

Wolfgang Eastman sure had a lot of fun with all of Leaf’s weird behaviors and self-deprecating humor, and in the midst of it also revealed a talented and powerful singing voice.  Alison Ayubi had the difficult job of pulling off Logainne’s noticeable speech impediment, and did so with consistency while portraying her interesting character.  Ian Edlund had great comic timing as the nerdy vice principal who called all the words for the spellers, and gave ridiculous definitions and sentences for most of them.  And Sam Capeloto came across as one of the most professional, well-trained actors, with a natural stage presence and intensity in the role of the angry, annoyed Mitch, who nonetheless finds some peace in the against-type job of consoling people.

Held at Everett High School’s Little Theater, I was impressed with the impeccable stage lighting, and the use of a small live orchestra.  The blocking was interesting and fun because the cast gets to use the audience entrances a lot, and even some of the audience seats. The sets were just right and made good use of the small space.  At times, it was difficult to hear the singers over the musicians because they had no microphones, but several cast members did a good job of projecting their voices.  The costumes were well-paired with the identity of each character, and simple changes and additions quickly transformed cast members into the smaller roles of parents and people in the spellers’ backgrounds when their stories were being told.

Overall, it was an excellent performance with good pacing, superior singing and acting, and great comic timing.  I will say…be careful what you sign up for in the lobby!!  LOL.  But, I really did have a good time being a speller, and I thank the cast for giving me a fun experience.

I will recommend Village Kidstage performances to anyone, anytime.  You are always going to get excellent entertainment from talented young actors and singers who are definitely on their way to bigger and better theatrical careers.