One of the best productions ever staged by the Edmonds Driftwood Players, “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee” continues its run this week at the Wade James Theatre.
Honestly, it doesn’t feel much like community theater.
The cast is primarily a group of young theater-major types, and they are good.
If you aren’t familiar with this Tony award-winning show, “Spelling Bee” is a musical comedy about a colorful group of nerdy tweens who vie for the local annual spelling championship that sends one person to compete in the National Spelling Bee in Washington, D.C.
Along the way, the spellers reveal hilarious and touching stories about their lives and their families (played by other cast members). They spell through a long list of words most of us have never heard of, not wanting to hear the ding of a bell that signals a mistake. We get just one winner, but each of the other characters gets a juice box and learns to like himself or herself just a little bit more, despite the losses.
Director Pauls Macs and his cast have taken some artistic license with the play, and they’ve done it right. Many of the pop-culture references have been updated. Lines have been changed to fit the actors and the local landscape. In a few places it feels almost like improvisation. (Be warned: Some of the funny lines and lyrics are often adult-oriented. Perfect show for high school students, however.)
We also enjoyed participation by several audience members called on stage to compete in the bee. All good sports, these people added much to the improvisational quality. The audience plays a part, too, applauding when words are spelled correctly.
“This is one of my very favorite musicals. There’s nothing else like it in the musical theater canon,” Macs said.
The show was conceived by Rebecca Feldman, who directed its debut in 2004 before it went to Broadway in 2005. The book is by Rachel Sheinkin, music and lyrics by William Finn and added material by Jay Reiss.
The Driftwood production of “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee” is accompanied on stage by a talented orchestra under the direction of Mark Press, an Edmonds native. Choreography is by Carissa Meisner Smit. Producers are Joanne Branch and Anabel Hovig, with stage management by Sean McKay.
The cast of Edmonds Driftwood Players’ Spelling Bee includes Mason Beaver, Dakota Daley, Morgan Dietkus, Marshall Link, Laura McFarlane, Olivia Waring, Ireland Woods, Jon Woods and Michael Yichao.
Yichao, who works with Jet City Improv, is Chip, the kid who doesn’t want to go to the microphone after gazing at one of the girls in the audience.
Ireland Woods, who grew up in Stanwood, was last seen in Driftwood’s “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum.” She plays Logainne Schwartzandgrubenniere, the daughter of gay fathers who are pushing her to win at any cost.
Link portrays the unsure but very funny Leaf Coneybear, a tie-dyed costumed kid from a family of hippies, who keeps having to spell the names of South American rodents.
Daley is brilliant as the weird kid named William Barfee. The name is pronounced “Barfay,” but the vice principal pronounces it “Barfy.” Barfee has a magic spelling leg and he sort of dances across the stage when he spells.
Waring, a fine violinist, plays Marcy Park, a serious girl in a school uniform who speaks six languages but in the end does not want to live up to expectations. Waring’s program bio is pretty funny, too. Or, maybe it’s true?
McFarlane, another Driftwood vet, plays the newcomer Olive, a kid who loves her dictionary and took a bus to the bee because her parents are flaky.
The spelling bee is run by Vice Principal Doug Panch, played by the understated but hilarious Jon Woods; and spelling bee alum and realtor Rona Lisa Perretti, portrayed by Morgan Dietkus, who has a great voice and a degree from the Boston Conservatory’s musical theater program. Beaver plays ex-con Mitch Mahoney, who is doing public service as the competition’s “comfort counselor.”
Used in a sentence, this “Spelling Bee” is B-R-I-L-L-I-A-N-T.
Gale Fiege: 425-339-3427; gfiege@heraldnet.com.
If you go
“The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee” performances are at 8 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays and 2 p.m. Sundays through May 8 at 950 Main St., Edmonds. Tickets are $25, or $22 for seniors, students and military. Go to www.edmondsdriftwoodplayers.org or call 425-774-9600, option 3.
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