As the 2019 school year comes to a close, what could be more topical than hosting an old-fashioned school spelling bee? It’s definitely on the course list for Next Act Theater, where All In Productions presents The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. This 2005 Broadway musical by William Finn and Rachel Sheinkin earns high marks for originality, casting, and creativity. One reason this show is produced so much is that it’s relatively low budget: only a few props are needed (such as two rows of school chairs, a large desk and a microphone) and the cast consists of only nine actors. Plus, it offers a chance for some fun audience participation. Low-budget or not, All-In Productions offers a completely captivating show, filled with all the pre-teen angst of children who desperately want to win the competition. At the center of the contest is last-year’s also-ran, William Barfee (Gage Patterson). This snot-nosed, whiny kid uses an offbeat system for spelling out the words in the show’s most memorable tune (“Magic Foot”). Patterson is so familiar with his character that one wouldn’t be surprised if he drew on some personal experience when creating the odious Barfee. Other characters have a chance to shine as well, such as Adam Qutaishat (as the zany, cape-wearing Leaf Coneybear), Stephanie Staszak (as a perky and lisping Logainne Schwartzandgrubenniere), Ava Bush (as a shy, funny Olive Ostrovsky) and Ashley Oviedo (a standout as Marcy Park, the girl who speaks six languages). The show quickly settles into a repetitive pace as contestants are eliminated, one by one. The bee is interrupted by songs that are inserted between rounds. However, most of the songs (and in this case, the choreography) don’t lift the production as much as they should. Instead, it is the strong acting, under the direction of Mitch Weindorf, that one will remember long after the curtain has come down.
The intimate Next Act Theater space is ideal for showcasing this small-scale musical, where the audience seems only an arm’s length away from the action. Opening night’s crowd felt everything that was transmitted onstage: from the joy of spelling a word correctly, to the agony of defeat when a word got away from the participants.
If the “kids” in the cast are uniformly wonderful (which they are), so are the adults. In taking a jab at one of Milwaukee’s greatest water crises, Samantha Sostarich (a former spelling bee winner about 20 years ago) announces that the principal has come down with a case of cryptosporidium. To the audience’s eventual delight, the principal’s “replacement” is Robby McGhee, one of All In’s co-founders, who plays Vice Principal Douglas Panch. The two adults play off one another so well that it adds a veneer of authenticity to a show that otherwise could easily spin off-track. Both “adults” earn their share of laughs throughout the show—McGhee perhaps a bit more than normal, thanks to his deadpan delivery during the actual spelling bee.
The show is backed by a five-piece, offstage orchestra that does a good job with the musical numbers. Credit goes to Paula Foley Tillen for assembling such a talented ensemble.
All In Productions, a relatively new Milwaukee theater company, has developed a mastery of taking on little-known musicals and breathing life into them. While Spelling Bee may be more mainstream than its usual fare, it is well worth adding to your entertainment calendar.
