
After you watch it, you'll never look at all those Scripps kids in the same way again. As its director, Dev Bondarin, told Romper in an email, "I love this show because it so effectively captures this important, high stakes moment in a young person's life with humor, intelligence, and care."Ģ5th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee may not be easy to find, but it's worth it. Sweet and shy Olive brings only her best friend (the dictionary) with her to the bee bold and hyperallergic speller William Barfee uses his magic foot to propel him to greatness former champion Chip is. If you're in or around New York City, for example, The Astoria Performing Arts Center has a charming production of it running through Memorial Day Weekend, which is absolutely worth checking out. An eclectic group of sixth-graders arrives at the 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, each eager to win for very different reasons. Plenty of regional theaters do the show, so keep your eyes peeled. Your best bet is to buy the soundtrack on iTunes or Amazon, or stream it on Spotify, and try to fill in the blanks, even though that means you miss out on a lot of the script's wit.īut depending on where you live, you might get lucky. This is an additional cost to the base rental fee. The truck rental fee is at the responsibility of the renter.
#25TH ANNUAL PUTNAM SPELLING BEE FULL#
I know, I know, you want more! Well, a few versions of the full show exist on YouTube, but they're of dubious legality and dubious quality. For the full package, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee is 1 53-foot enclosed truck. (And did you catch a pre- Modern Family Jesse Tyler Ferguson as speller Leaf Coneybear, who makes his own clothes and probably has ADHD?) I fell in love with it when I saw it in its pre-Broadway run, and subsequently annoyed my dad by insisting we listen to the soundtrack on loop during the entirety of our cross-country college tour.įor a taste, watch its performance at the 2005 Tony Awards (where it was nominated for six awards and brought home two) below: The show has improvisation, songs about the hazards of puberty (if you're a hormonal boy, you'd better hope you don't have to spell the word "tittup"), and a few really heartbreaking moments. All the kids have their own reasons for being at the bee, ranging from the pushing of over-involved parents to the loneliness of having no friends other than a dictionary, and the competition ends up being about a lot more than spelling. Spelling Bee, by William Finn and Rachel Sheinkin, tells the story of six young contestants (played by adults) competing to win a local spelling contest, with the actors always joined by a few audience members pulled onstage to fill out the competition.
#25TH ANNUAL PUTNAM SPELLING BEE HOW TO#
While it's not easy to watch The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee online, you've got a few options for how to fall into its delightful world.

April 14th, 2018.Cast (in order of appearance):Rona Lisa Peretti: Haley ClarkChip Tole. A hilarious musical called The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee exists, and it might just become your favorite thing. Brown's BUGS production of The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee.

If, thanks to the Scripps National Spelling Bee, you've discovered that you love watching awkward preteens spell words you've never heard before, I have excellent news for you.
