25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee

ANywhere to get dicounted for tickets for this yet?!

The cast has been finalized actually-

Complete Cast Set For 'The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee' Off Broadway

- Playbill

Flower Drum Song star Jose Llana has joined the company of William Finn and Rachel Sheinkin's new musical The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee for its New York premiere at Second Stage Theatre.

Director James Lapine (Into The Woods, Fran's Bed) reteams with his Tony Award-winning collaborator, Falsettos composer William Finn (A New Brain, Elegies: A Song Cycle). The new work is slated to begin Jan. 11, 2005 and open Feb. 7, 2005 for a run through March 6, 2005.


The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee follows "six young people on the edge of puberty [who] strive to become adults," according to show materials. The work made its world premiere production, under the direction of Michael Unger and Rebecca Feldman, at Sheffield, Massachusetts' Barrington Stage Company in July 2004.


Llana - in the role originated by Robb Sapp (Zanna, Don't!) - joins the Barrington cast that featured Jesse Tyler Ferguson (On the Town), Celia Keenan-Bolger (Summer of 42, The Light in the Piazza), Derrick Baskin, Deborah S. Craig, Dan Fogler, Lisa Howard, Jay Reiss and Sarah Saltzberg.


Featuring music and lyrics by Finn with a book by Rachel Sheinkin (Striking 12) from a concept by Rebecca Feldman, the musical will feature choreography by Dan Knechtges. Vadim Feichtner handles musical direction and orchestrations are by Michael Starobin. The design team includes Beowulf Boritt (scenic), Jennifer Caprio (costumes), Natasha Katz (lighting) and Dan Moses Schreier (sound). The production stage manager is Andrea Testani.


Second Stage currenlty co-presents the Broadway staging of Reckless (with Manhattan Theatre Club at the Biltmore Theatre) and a revival of John Patrick Shanley's Danny and the Deep Blue Sea (at its midtown home). The world premiere of Paul Weitz's Privilege (starting March 29, 2005) and Cheryl L. West's Birdie Blue starring "Law & Order" actress S. Epatha Merkerson (from May 31, 2005) will also fill the troupe's season.


Tickets to The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee at Second Stage, 307 West 43rd Street (just off 8th Ave.) are on sale at the box office and by phone at (212) 246-4422 or (800) 766-6048. For more information, visit www.SecondStageTheatre.com.

I am WAY too excited for this show.

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I saw it last night (Friday, January 14th) and here are a few random thoughts (I'll do my best to avoid spoilers):

-- A charming, very funny, audience-pleaser of a show (I heard several people saying it was the funniest thing they'd seen in years). It's wonderful seeing a show that's so fresh and energetic and non-derivative. It's not perfect, yet, as befits the first week of previews, but there is lots of very strong material here and an excellent cast.

-- Act One is much stronger than Act Two at this point -- the show loses momentum and sags a bit after intermission. While one would think that a show about a contest would get more interesting and tense as it got down to the last two or three contestants, almost the opposite is true here -- all the characters are so funny and interesting that you hate to see them go when they miss a word (the creative team has made all of the characters extremely loveable and endearing -- no villains or real antagonists in this piece .... which may or may not be the best thing for the show). The book and direction seemed to meander a bit in the second act, as if they weren't sure how they wanted it to end.

-- Possible Spoiler, but I've written it as vaguely as possible: The relationship between the last two contestants isn't strongly drawn enough -- when one offers to make a sacrifice for the other, the moment lacked resonance and almost seemed to come out of nowhere because it wasn't clear before that moment that the two had such a strong bond. That moment and the ending of the show felt anti-climactic (and the final "where are they now" sequence felted tacked on -- if it stays in, it needs punching up because it wasn't nearly as funny as it should have been).

-- Also, the technique of having all the contestants go through series of words in rapid-succession, to suggest the passage of time, gets tedious and repetitive as it is currently written and staged.

-- All that aside, Finn has written a terrific score here, giving every character a memorable comic solo turn (a couple of these songs are sure to become favorites of the audition circuit in a couple of years). The book by Rachel Sheinkin is laugh-out-loud funny throughout (the "use the word in a sentence" responses are priceless) and quite touching where it needs to be. If it lacks a certain dramatic tension between the characters, and loses its way a bit in Act Two, hopefully she and Lapine can fix it by opening.

-- The cast is uniformly excellent from top to bottom, so I won't single anyone out (other than understudy Willis White who stepped in seemlessly playing several roles -- gorgeous voice).

-- James Lapine's direction and Dan Knechtges' choreography brought the needed energy and pacing to the proceedings.

-- Could this move to Broadway? Well, it's a small show that would probably lose some of its charm in a 1000 seat house, but then again it's roughly the same size as Avenue Q (and personally I think Spelling Bee is funnier) so why not? If the reviews are good (and I'd expect they will be) I wouldn't be surprised if the show moves after it finishes its Second Stage run -- either this season or next.

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Updated On: 1/15/05 at 04:13 PM

Thanks, Margo. Excited to see the show tonight.

And for whoever it was that asked, yes, there are discounts out there. $37.50 for any seat.

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Margo, thanks for posting your review. I can't wait to see it, everyone I've talked to says it's terrific.

As far as it moving to Broadway, I'm wondering if they couldn't put it in Circle in the Square. It's a smallish house (600 seats?), and can be configured to suit what sounds like the demands that this show has (the audience participation aspects in particular).

It certainly would make for an interesting entry in this year's Tony race! (especially considering the way things turned out last year...)

The problem with commercial off-Broadway is that it's VERY hard for a show this large to turn a profit (and by large I mean a cast of 9 plus two understudies and 6 musicians is very expensive to run by off-Broadway standards). I'm not sure, though. Perhaps, going into somewhere like the Little Shubert or The Union Square (both with an off-Broadway maximum of 499 seats) would be financially viable (off-Broadway minimums and other costs are significantly lower).

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I know that the minimums for off-Broadway depend on the size of the house, maxing out at around $800 for a 499 seat house, I believe (and by the way the current Equity Broadway minimum is just over $1300). There would be significant savings by going the commercial Off-Broadway route, but then on the flip side, you lose out on the possible glory that goes with the Tony Award, as well as the national exposure from the telecast (you're still eligible for the Drama Desk, Outer Circle, Obie and Pulitzer -- none of which have much if any impact box office-wise).

Something tells me that if they get a rave from Brantley, they're Broadway bound, but if he's lukewarm (and they get strong notices from other critics), they'll explore their Off-Broadway options.

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Updated On: 1/15/05 at 06:06 PM

I think there's a good chance Brantley will like it if it gets cleaned up and Act II is improved a bit. You'd really have to be humorless not to get a giggle from this show.

Updated On: 1/15/05 at 06:11 PM

I really liked the set design- it was a stylized version of every single public school gym I've ever been in. Ah, the scarring memories.

Updated On: 1/15/05 at 06:28 PM

Ooh! DG, I vaguely remember you saying that you had tickets to Caroline's California run. So...if I'm not imagining things, didja like it?

Well, there's no telling at this point (everything I've written remember is complete speculation). They very well could decide to hold off on moving for a while (perhaps they don't want to compete against Spamalot, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, and Light in the Piazza at this year's Tonys) and extend at Second Stage for a while (there are shows slated to go in there, but I don't believe the dates are firm yet -- Spelling Bee could probably go for another month or so).

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