The Norris Theatre puts a spell on you!
Ian Littleworth as Leaf Coneybear (center), and to his left: Donovan Wright as Mitch Mahoney, Kelsey Venter as Rona Lisa Perretti, and Erik Gratton as Vice Principal Douglas Panch. Photo by Ed Krieger
“The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee” opens the new season at the Norris Theatre
Game shows can be silly and distracting, but amusing and addictive as well, and “The 25th Annual Putnam Spelling Bee” wiggles its way into that category. The musical, which was conceived by Rebecca Feldman and then provided with a book by Rachel Sheinkin with music and lyrics by William Finn, emerged on Broadway 2005 and then was nominated for six Tony Awards. It won two, including Best Book. That, at least gives it weight and legitimacy.
Palos Verdes Performing Arts opened its 35th season with the show this past weekend, where it will be at the Norris Theatre through Oct. 1. The production is well done, and often entertaining.
The setting is a high school gymnasium with a 1950s feel even though the action is set closer to the present. Various regional spelling champs have gathered for this contest and they all have distinctive names and backgrounds. There is a genial host, Rona Lisa Perretti (played by Kelsey Venter), a person to pronounce the words and to provide definitions (Vice Principal Douglas Panch, played by Erik Gratton), a criminal doing his community service as a “comfort counselor” (Donovan Wright as Mitch Mahoney), and then the kids themselves, who sit in bleachers and await their turn to be called up to the microphone where they are give a word to spell.
Words like capybara or weevil or fandango. And then some really, really hard ones, like knock-out punches in a boxing match.
One preconception that people may have is that these kids, seemingly in middle school or barely into high school, are played by real kids, whereas they’re played by adults, probably in their 20s. Of course, they act like kids, and when we go home after the show we may subconsciously think of them as such. Despite all this, these are mature actors, all of them competent and a couple of them actually pretty good.
The first thing we notice is that they all look rather nerdish. No one up in the stands looks really cool. There’s William Barfée (Jacoy Nye), plagued by allergies; Leaf Coneybear (Ian Littleworth), the offspring of flower children; Olive Ostrovsky (Tayler Mettra), whose mother is on a spiritual retreat in India; Marcy Park (Hajin Cho), a stereotypical overachieving Asian; Chip Tolentino (Chris Bona), a boy scout with lots of merit badges; and Logainne Schwartzandgrubenniere (Gabriela Milo), who has this curious last name because she’s the adoptive child of two pushy gay dads, David Schwartz and Carl Grubennierre.
The musical, as written, is rather quirky. Take, for instance Rona’s blithely delivered one-line descriptions of each contestant as he or she prepares to spell: “Miss Ostrovsky came in second in her school’s Halloween contest,” “Charlito ‘Chip’ Tolentino is a little league pitcher with a wicked 22-mile an hour screwball,” “Mr. Barfée has a sea anemone circus in his basement,” and so on. These are spoken cheerfully with a straight face, and they match the deadpan expressions on the face of Vice Principal Panch as he defines the word to be spelled and uses it in a sentence.
A couple of examples that may or may not be in the show (there are many to choose from, which can give the performances some quick-thinking spontaneity):
A-P-O-O-P. Def.: “Toward the back; to move astern on a boat.” As used in a sentence: “Guido, the seasick Italian sailor said, ’Scusa me, boys, but I’m-a-gonna go apoop.”
H-O-M-U-N-C-U-L-U-S. Def.: “An artificially made dwarf, supposedly produced in a flask by a chemist.” As used in a sentence: “Rita’s mother dreaded the day when Homunculus Rita would ask where she came from.”
Without cracking a smile as he says all this, Erik Gratton definitely enhances the show as it becomes slightly reminiscent of the little books by Edward Gorey.
Jacob Nye as William Barfée, center. Photo by Ed Krieger
Once these spelling bee invitees have been cleared off the stage (given a big hug and a juice drink by Mitch), the story settles in. There are occasional moments when the narrative freezes and the characters are psychologically illuminated, as it were, thus giving the audience some insight into the person trying to emerge as the champion. What we see is that for some of them there’s a lot of pressure, most of it having to do with parental expectations. Maybe this is most evident with “Schwartzy,” with her two fathers, and with Marcy Park, who is athletic, musical, and speaks six languages. But underneath the impressive veneer of the latter is someone who is frustrated and perhaps even wants to fail, just to rid herself of the constant pressure imposed on her to succeed in everything.
Among the “kids,” Chris Bona as Chip stands out and earns a certain amount of sympathy when, distracted and sexually aroused by Leaf’s sister, Marigold, he’s called to the stage. Flustered and embarrassed, he flubs the word and Panch rings the bell that signals his dismissal.
The boy is shocked, pleads that he knew the word, but to no avail. After the intermission he’s back to toss candy into the audience while he sings “Chip’s Lament,” which blames his ejection on an untimely erection. It’s funny, but maybe a little incongruous with the rest of the show. The audience can decide for themselves (alternative versions of the script exist in case church groups or the like want to tamp down the wording).
The songs are catchy enough, performed live under the direction of pianist Sean Alexander Bart, although it’s hard to imagine anyone walking out and humming them. With few exceptions they take a back seat to the action on stage.
There’s a low-key bubbling turbulence just below surface, with the adults slightly farcical. One can, for instance, put tiny question marks above the heads of VP Panch and Mitch the “comfort counselor” because we know that they have something or other curious in their pasts; even so, we never really learn what those somethings might be. But the kids, despite various idiosyncrasies (William Barfée feels beholden to “the magic foot,” whereby he writes the word out on the floor with his shoe), are very serious about the contest. They’re fiercely competitive, and yet we’ll see a bit of late-blooming compassion, that concludes the show on a somewhat uplifting note.
All in all, light fare, almost fluff, but amusing and cleverly done.
The 25th Annual Putnam Spelling Bee, directed by Robert Israel, is being performed at 8 p.m. on Friday and Saturday, and 2 p.m. on Sunday, in the Norris Theatre, 27570 Norris Center Drive, Rolling Hills Estates. Tickets, $30 to $70, with $15 student rush tickets (plus the $5 facility fee). Through Oct. 1. Call (310) 544-0403 or go to palosverdesperformingarts.com. ER