ON STAGE
What: The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee
Where: Langham Court Theatre, 805 Langham Court
When: Jan. 17 through Feb. 2 (matinées on Jan. 19, Jan. 26, and Feb. 2)
Tickets: $15-$33 from langhamtheatre.ca, by phone at 250-384-2142 or in person at the Langham Court box office
Part of what makes The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee such an enduring musical comedy is the amount of audience involvement in each production.
Rebecca Feldman’s Broadway hit from 2005 deftly crosses the barrier between stage and seats, and soars with jaunty music and lyrics by William Finn and a funny book by Rachel Sheinkin.
The play about adolescent spelling-bee contestants and their families — and unresolved fears and foibles — leaves room for audience members to participate in the contest, which often produces uproarious results.
Starting tonight, Langham Court Theatre is mounting a production of the Tony Award-winning smash with all the comedic potential of the original. “There is a large amount of audience participation, so depending on who gets called up each night, it can go either way,” said director Pat Rundell. “A lot of audience members who have seen the show before look forward to that aspect.”
During rehearsals, the spirited 11-person cast has rehearsed with volunteers filling in for audience participants. If what has transpired thus far is an accurate representation of how the production will go during its run through Feb. 2, patrons are in for a special night of theatre, Rundell said.
“It celebrates individuality and quirkiness,” he said. “It’s not a typical Broadway play, where there’s an ingenue and a leading man. It celebrates that we are all different. And it also proves you don’t always have to win, either.”
A lot of preparation went into rehearsals for the spelling-bee portion of the performance. The actors who play student spellers — Keeley Teuber (Olive), Kyle Kushnir (Barfée), Hailey Fowler (Logainne), Ashley King (Marcy), Rowan Wolfe (Chip) and Liam Stevens (Leaf) — might know the spelling words in advance, but that doesn’t make their job any easier once the production goes live, especially when it comes time to break down words such as hasenpfeffer and weltanschauung before an audience.
“A lot of the rehearsals were improvised, just to see how each cast member dealt with things on the fly,” Rundell said.
“Every rehearsal, we’ve thrown something new at the actors, just so they have a chance to react. They have to have everything thrown at them, because there’s a lot of moving pieces.”
Though it will be a “feast for the senses,” Langham Court is offering a faithful adaptation, Rundell said. Music, served up in boisterous amounts by music director Yanik Giroux, and choreography from Leah Moreau adds to the sensory overload, but the heart of the original remains.
Barfée must deal with an allergic reaction to peanuts, among other ailments, while his closet crush is somewhat abandoned by her parents. In short, it’s an accurate representation of the life of a teenager, with all the awkward bits included, Rundell said.
“It’s fun for everybody to relive those embarrassing moments.”
