Spelling Bee tour review- first show!

[ashley0139]

Posted: 8/20/06 at 7:06pm

I saw the first show of the new Spelling Bee tour today at 2:30. And this cast is TALENTED! Special mentions go to Katie Boren (Marcy Park), Lauren Worsham (Olive Ostovsky), and Miguel Cervantes (Chip Tolentino), but the whole cast was great. The only one I wasn't especially thrilled with was Jennifer Simard as Rona Lisa Peretti. She definitely had the potential, but her voice was a little too whiney for me. The whole show went really well, for a first time with an audience. There were some noticable sound glitches, however. Many times the wrong person's mic was turned up too high. And a lot of times the harmony was actually louder than the melody. There were a couple of little changes to the book that I noticed. One was, in Woe is Me, instead of Logainne yelling "Jesus Christ" she yelled "Jeez Louise." Maybe it's because Atlanta is in the Bible belt or something. They also tailored a lot of it to Atlanta. The schools they came from were all Atlanta schools and Olive took the MARTA to the Bee. Overall, it was a great show. In many ways completely comparable to the Broadway show. The show is adorable and the entire audience loved it, laughing in all the right places. On a side note, I was sitting in the back of the orchestra, and I could swear I saw James Lapine sitting back there taking notes. It would make sense since he is the director. It was kind of cool. Oh, and I did sign up to be in the Bee but I did not get chosen, unfortunately. I definitely recommend this production!

[RentBoy86]

Posted: 8/20/06 at 8:17pm

I can't wait to see this. I was going to go see the show in ATL - I really wanted to see the Alliance theater, but oh well. It's not coming here in January, so I'll just have to wait. Glad you had a great time. Atlanta has a great season. I wonder if they'll tailor the show to each city? Do they travel with writers or do the actors just pick up certain things in each city?

[hermionejuliet]

Posted: 8/20/06 at 9:14pm

I'm glad to hear the first show was good. I can't wait to see it.

[jaesdare]

Posted: 8/20/06 at 9:16pm

they're tailoring it to each city, the actors themselves are doing it. they research each city a little beforehand and put in somethings and see if they work. if you noticed in Jennifer's opening monologue she talked about the Atlanta hospital for catastrophic care, and about how Superintedent was swimming at the Atlanta something center and got impaled by a buoy.

[LizzieCurry]

Posted: 8/20/06 at 9:35pm

LOL! That's great. Does Logainne end up Secretary of Education under a Georgia politician? She's Secretary of Education under Gavin Newsom here in SF. :)

[ashley0139]

Posted: 8/20/06 at 9:42pm

Does Logainne end up Secretary of Education under a Georgia politician?

Yes. She became Secretary of Education under (current mayor) Shirley Franklin.

[LizzieCurry]

Posted: 8/20/06 at 9:52pm

Thanks! How did they react to the...er, second coming of Chip?

[ashley0139]

Posted: 8/21/06 at 9:29am

There were really no appalled reactions or anything. Everyone seemed to be really into it (in a good way). They were laughing and cheering and stuff.

[JamesMacon]

Posted: 8/21/06 at 11:09am

Thats really cool! I am glad to hear the tour is off to a good start.

[junglered]

Posted: 8/21/06 at 11:39am

Ashley, thanks for a great review. It's nice that "Bee" has been customized to fit the local Atlanta audience. I'll be seeing the show next week.

[PARISinNYC]

Posted: 8/21/06 at 6:49pm

Yes! This is great news. I'm glad that it's not gonna be a rip-off. I bought tickets for September 2nd a while ago. I wish I had gotten it earlier.

[gillybean]

Posted: 8/22/06 at 2:59pm

I'm so glad to hear the show is good. I loved the show in NYC. I looked at the site and saw that the Olive/Logainne u/s is Dana Steingold whom I have seen perform numerous times over the years. She is fantastic-gorgeous voice and a true commedienne (sp?) as well as being a genuinely sweet sweet girl. I believe she just graduated in May...not suprised to see her working so quickly. Does anyone know about planned vacations? It seemed on the Allinance web site the covers were not listed as cast members. I would LOVE LOVE LOVE to see her go on. I am sure she will be fabulous! So exciting.

[RentBoy86]

Posted: 8/22/06 at 3:27pm

The only thing I'm concerned about is that here in Birmingham, there aren't many theaters to house this show, I'm afraid it's going to be swallowed in the Concert Hall which seats about 4,000 people. It's like the size of the Fox in Atlanta - minus all the beauitfulness.

[PARISinNYC]

Posted: 8/22/06 at 4:47pm

beautifulness. ha.

[RentBoy86]

Posted: 8/22/06 at 4:53pm

Hey! Shakespeare makes up his own words!

[coolphantom919]

Posted: 8/22/06 at 5:03pm

i got season tickets for indianapolis and SPELLING BEE is in the PACKAGE!!!

[TJS2]

Posted: 9/18/06 at 9:43am

Backstage.com has a good review of the show.

http://www.backstage.com/bso/search/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003118989

Updated On: 9/18/06 at 09:43 AM

[Emilie!]

Posted: 9/23/06 at 10:56am

I'm so glad that the tour's going well, I can't wait until it comes to Minneapolis!

Just wondering, but when do you sign up for being in the bee? Did you hae to do that when you ordered tickets...? Just wondering!

[raulfan]

Posted: 9/23/06 at 11:39am

I'm going to see it in Hartord - can't wait!!

[RentBoy86]

Posted: 9/23/06 at 2:49pm

My only concern is how the show will work in a huge concert hall with 3,000+ seats. I'm not sure the same theater that housed Lion King should house this show.