Review: The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, Back and Better Than E-V-E-R

A textbook-perfect revival of The 25^th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee just opened at New World Stages off-Broadway, 20 years after the musical’s Broadway run. Not only has it aged beautifully, with finely tuned performances from every member of the ensemble, but its quirky send-up of niche competition for children feels more astute than ever.

With a book by Rachel Sheinkin and a score by William Finn, Spelling Bee follows a group of students as they compete to be declared the best speller in their county. Chip Tolentino (Philippe Arroyo) is the returning champion, but he faces tough competition from Marcy Park (Leana Rae Concepcion), a parochial school student who has previously competed at nationals. Logainne Schwartzandgrubenierre (Autumn Best, radiating pick-me energy) has drilled for this moment like she’s Hillary Clinton going into a debate, her two dads hungry for proof that they raise winners. And then there’s Leaf Coneybear (Justin Cooley), a homeschool kid practically there by default. No one sees him as a threat.

“I’m Not That Smart,” he sings, the gentle lament of a kid from a large family who has been cast in the role of the fool. Cooley’s lucid, irresistibly charming performance unearths layers of nuance in a character who could easily be dismissed as a doofus.

As former champion and 9-time host Rona Peretti, Lilli Cooper conveys the candy-coated cruelty of the adults who are drawn to adolescent competition: seemingly trivial displays of intelligence that, when we consider the outsize role of extracurriculars in the college admissions process, actually represent the tightrope act we ask young Americans to perform in order to be admitted into the ruling class.

Vice Principal Douglas Panch (a satisfyingly dry Jason Kravits) plays the role of grim reaper, the sudden ding of his bell indicating a misspelled word and elimination. “Comfort counselor” Mitch Mahoney (an attractively assertive Matt Manuel) is there to receive the losers. A former gym proprietor whose business failed in the pandemic forcing him to fall back on teaching, he is the living embodiment of all that awaits these kids should they make one misstep.

Practically unrecognizable from her Tony-nominated turn as Betty Boop, Jasmine Amy Rogers melts our hearts as Olive Ostrovsky, the walking dictionary persevering despite her absent parents. She’s an easy character to root for, unlike the chronically congested William Barfée (Kevin McHale) and his magic foot (he uses it to spell out the words before he speaks). McHale’s distinctive take on William made me understand the character in a new light. His reflexive disdain is the defense mechanism of a kid who has seen the inside of a locker more than a few times and understands that the best defense is a good offense.

Arroyo’s rendition of “My Unfortunate Erection” is a master class in musical theater performance, every note and lyric pristine as he frantically tosses bags of candy into the audience. Appropriate for a character for whom “winning is a job,” Concepcion delivers the biggest showstopper of the night with disciplined joylessness. But the KPOP-inspired streak of color in her hair (thoughtful design by Tommy Kurzman) lets us know that contrary to perception, she might actually have a colorful internal life were she ever given the space to breathe.

That’s just one of many smart touches in director Danny Mefford’s production, which brings this musical spinning back to life without reinventing the wheel (James Lapine directed the original production). Teresa L. Williams’s set transforms the theater into a gymnasium. Costume designer Emily Rebholz outfits the kids in appropriately unfashionable duds, although I loved the creative patches on Leaf’s homemade attire. Little surprises reveal themselves on the set as David Weiner’s lights shift, transporting us far away from the gymnasium, a distant echo bringing us to the ashram Olive’s mother has decided to inhabit rather than being with her daughter. The sound, by Haley Parcher, is perfectly balanced, allowing us to hear every single zany, impressively rhyming, and unexpectedly perceptive Finn lyric.

The great irony of this revival of Spelling Bee is that the exemplary performances that make this a must-see production are almost certainly the product of the same merciless meritocracy that places children in competition at an early age, separating the wheat from the chaff before performers have had a chance to encounter the world as adults. The performers in this young cast, a who’s who of tomorrow’s A-list, have likely been listening to these songs since before they were the actual age of the characters they are playing. They arrive off-Broadway with performances that in many ways exceed those of the actors who originated the roles.

But that’s how the acceleration of achievement goes as American kids run faster, leap higher, and spell harder than the generation before them. Yes, it’s progress. But it’s also psychotic. The 25^th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee is an opportunity to reflect on that behavior through a laugh-out-loud musical comedy that is both funnier and darker now than it was in 2005.