There are some shows in the huge and groaning anthology of stage musicals that are simply impervious to critical comment.
Because no matter how bad some or all of the performers are, and no matter how ham-handed the direction, something like The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee will always be saved by the Tony Award-winning book by Rachel Sheinkin.
There are six finalists in the competition, a lineup which is temporarily enlarged at every performance with four volunteer audience members selected beforehand, each of whom are quickly dispatched. After that, the play mostly consists of the usual spelling bee mechanics. If you question how many laughs could be generated by a play featuring a geeky middle-school spelling bee, the answer is a ton. Each time the spellers are introduced, and every time the participants ask for their spelling word to be defined or used in a sentence, Sheinkin nails a laugh line you don't see coming.
As the spookily efficient spelling machine Marcy Park, Kayla Petersen not only nails her letters but also fashions a loose-limbed dance in her song"I Speak Six Languages," a number that falls just short of being a showstopper. And Gabriel J. Hill turns boy scout Chip Tolentino from an uber-confident spelling jock to a quivering lump of embarrassment when his Trouser Weasel decides to rise to the occasion.
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