The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee

With music and lyrics by William Finn and book by Rachel Sheinkin, The 25^th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee is a saucy, quirky musical.  The show opened on Broadway in 2005 and was nominated for six Tony Awards winning two including a Tony win for Best Book for Rachel Sheinkin.

The Bee is presided over by Ms. Rona Lisa Peretti (played by Chelsea Boyd) whose own spelling bee win 17 years ago gave her the confidence to embark on a successful career in real estate.  She is joined by Vice-principal Panch (Josh Bricker) who is returning to the Bee after a five year hiatus that was imposed immediately after an unknown but clearly unfortunate incident.

For one brief shining moment the group of misfits have the spotlight and a shot at making Putnam County history.  The only question is:  Who will take home the trophy?  Will it

be the latchkey kid Olive (Shani Ferry) or the home-schooled boy with un-diagnosed Aspergers, Leaf Coney Bear (Allen Seeley)?  Perhaps Chip (Kristapher Ray North), the Boy Scout with unfortunate erections will be victorious or maybe the sinus-challenged William Barfee (Daniel Lozinak) will triumph.

Early money is on Marcy (Julia Wilson) who can speak six languages yet can’t express herself in any of them.  Logainne Schwartzandgrubenierre (Hannah Conkle) who with her world view and two gay dads will give Marcy a run for her money.  The last character is Mitch Mahoney who serves as a comfort counselor doling out juice boxes to the runners up.

To the delight of audiences, Spelling Bee is an audience participation show.  Members of the audience will be pre-selected to volunteer to be guest spellers.   Many of WRP’s previous audience members who know this show have already volunteered to be selected.

We look forward to their participation and invite others to let us know if they want to be part of this night.  Just call the theatre and express your interest. 

The one lingering and lasting theme of this show is that these six young people, overseen by grown-ups who barely managed to escape childhood themselves, learn that winning isn’t everything and that losing doesn’t necessarily make you a loser.  Spelling Bee is a hilarious tale of overachievers’ angst chronicling the experience of six adolescent outsiders vying for the spelling championship of a lifetime.  The show’s Tony Award winning creative team has created the unlikeliest of hit musicals about the unlikeliest of heroes: a quirky yet charming cast of outsiders for whom a spelling bee is the one place where they can stand out and fit in at the same time.  The songs are fun and saucy and hopefully no offense is taken by Chip’s Lament song which has been performed in high schools all over the country including Firestone High School here in Akron.  The audience was amused by this comical turn.

Director Marc C. Howard has put together not only a talented group of players but also a

super production team.  Headlining the group is musical director Alex Garrard assisted by J. T. Buck and percussionist Daniel Rylander all of whom are part of the musical ensemble for Pippin now playing at Weathervane Playhouse.  Stage manager is Scott Jarvis and the lighting is handled by Sue Snyder and Marty Hess.   Lena Sass is the costumer and  Walt Kaminski our resident Set Designer is once again working hard to surprise us with a very special set.  Marie Dusini, Sue Snyder and Al Klesh are the producers.

Ticket prices:           Adults $14.00         Seniors & Students $10.00  

                                  Opening Night July 22^nd ONLY --  Buy one, Get one for $7.00

Curtain Time:          8:00 pm   Fridays & Saturdays

For Reservations:    Call:  330-620-7314

Theatre is located at 3326 Everett Road at the Bath/Richfield Township line in Summit County.  When using I-77 from the North or South use exit 143 and turn left at the top of the ramp and drive one half mile and turn right onto Revere Road.  Drive one mile to our theatre which is the big gray Barn on Everett Road.