Spelling Bee love! — Page 26

OOH! That's fun!

I have Marcy Park's number card that is signed by everyone in the NYC cast- all originals (so with Dan and Jay).

Hehe, Mer, last night was so much fun. I loved when Jared told us that we were singlehandedly keeping the show open. I heart the SF cast. I can't wait to get my hands on Leaf's number card.

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Following a late summer run at Atlanta's Alliance Theatre, the national tour of The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee will take off across the country this fall. Tour stops have been announced.

The new musical currently enjoys a San Francisco run at The Post Street Theatre and will play an open-ended sit-down run at Chicago's Drury Lane Theatre Water Tower Place (starting March 2. The Georgia run — which opens the regional company's season — precedes the show's national tour which starts in Baltimore.

Cities slated to see the bee include:


Baltimore, MD - Hippodrome Theatre (Sept. 19-Oct. 1)
Pittsburgh, PA - Heinz Hall (Oct. 31-Nov. 5)
Minneapolis, MN - State Theatre (Nov. 7-12)
Cincinnati, OH - Aronoff Center for the Arts (Nov. 14-26)
Costa Mesa, CA - Orange County PAC (Dec. 9-31)
Portland, OR - Keller Auditorium (Jan. 2-7, 2007)
Seattle, WA - Paramount Theatre (Jan. 9-14, 2007)
San Antonio, TX - Majestic Theatre (Feb. 6-11, 2007)
Louisville, KY - Kentucky Center (Feb. 20-25, 2007)
Fort Lauderdale, FL - Broward Center for the Performing Arts (March 13-17,2007)
Tampa Bay, FL - Carol Morsani Hall @TBPAC (March 27-April 1,2007)
Orlando, FL - Carr Performing Arts Centre (April 10-15, 2007)
Casting for the tour will begin this spring. The original Broadway creative team will return for the Atlanta production and national tour.

Tour stops and dates can be found on the web at broadwayacrossamerica.com. For more information on the musical, visit www.spellingbeethemusical.com.

I noticed that too, but the way the SF people talk it sounds like an open run to me.

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I'm guessing that they will use the same set, but not necessarily the same cast.

Hey guys. Saw the show again on Sunday with all those understudies in. (Sarah Stiles as Logainne, Willis as Mitch, and Lisa Yuen as Olive) Heres my review of these members:

Sarah Stiles-
Sarah was cute as Logan but not nearly as good as Sarah Saltzberg. To me the whole time it seemed like she was just doing an impression of Saltzberg and didnt really put her own spin on it. However, she was really trying hard and it wasnt too bad to see her fill in. I think if she comes into her own she may be a great choice to take over in the role eventually.

Lisa Yuen-
This was the second time I have seen Lisa (last time as Marcy Park) and having seen Deborah again I can now honestly say I like Lisa better in the role, but Deborah is good too! This time I saw Lisa as Olive which was a bit strange. Seeing her with the black father and the white mother was a bit puzzling in the scene but that of course is not her fault. She doesnt have the range of Celia but it didnt matter because she is so likeable and cute. She was by far my favorite of the understudies on for the day.

Willis White-
Willis was deffinetly the weakest of the understudies. I know he was trying very hard and he acted well but he doesnt nearly have the range of Derrick. All of the Mitch songs just didnt sound right so that was a bit sad.

The most dissapointing part of the show was The I Love You Song. This is one of my favorite parts of the show but it just wasnt right this time. Because of Willis' lack of range it seemed like Lisa was toneing down her performance and it did not nearly have the power it generally has. I was quite sad because I was really looking foward to hearing this again too.

All in all it wasnt too bad and all of the normal actors were spot on as always. I still liked it, just not as much as last time.

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Updated On: 3/28/06 at 05:07 PM

Ticketmaster seems to think SF is an open run. So I dunno. (Or maybe that's what it says when there is no specified closing date.)

BTW, will there be any adults-only performances in SF? I sure hope so. :)

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dirty rotten guy, thanks for reporting on the understudies. Kudos to Sarah Stiles for going on as Schwartzy, then Olive in the same day.

Thanks for the reviews of the understudies!

I got a ticket for Sunday night because I wanted to see Lisa as Olive and she said she'd be on that night too, but alas, it wasn't so. I got to see Sarah Stiles as Olive, she was excellent.

She was there tonight, I don't know more than that. Her understudy (Sarah Stiles) was great though, you should check her out too.

One of my favorite speller comments was about a lady who had lots of Southwestern-style jewelry on.

"(Name)'s mother buys her a new piece of turquoise jewelry everytime she wins a spelling bee!"

And:

"(Name) is recovering from head lice."

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SF. Never been to NY, actually.

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I was told that the SF and Chicago are both open ended and that they will start casting the tour in a month. However, there is a chance that if the grosses are not what is expected for the SF run,they might tour. As of right now, that is not the plan.