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The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee

 
Ben Ludlow Review by Ben Ludlow 2 Published: 14 Aug 2025 Greenside @ George Street Show Dates: 1 Aug 2025-23 Aug 2025

The 25th Annual Putnam Country Spelling Bee is a quirky musical that is quite tricky to pull off. Its premise is that of the “trapped in a lift” variety, namely that a group of children are competing against each other throughout to spell complex words in a spelling bee. The words are generally words that they will probably never use or need, crammed full of Zs and Ys and lurking Cs, and to some extent this creates a futility in the enterprise that is perhaps a dry commentary on the teaching of literacy within primary education. However, the real heart of the musical is to play out the backstory of each competitor so that the richness of their life story is revealed, explaining and endearing them to the audience. Such is the key to this musical, and at its best, it has secured itself Tony, Drama Desk, and Theatre World Awards on Broadway, and a place in the hearts of many American high school theatre programmes. At its best. However, this depends on the charm of the characters shining through the tedious pointlessness of the competition. This never really happens in this production.

Disciplined and clean but without charm

We are greeted with a busy stage, decorations of bunting and signage all pointing to the fact that a spelling bee is about to start. All very informative and all very practical, but it makes it hard to escape the setting and keep dynamic as we move later into the backstories of the characters. A series of young competitors are presented, after which we bounce between spelling attempts of varying success and breakout song-and-dance numbers as the competition heats up. It is disciplined and clean but without charm, the primary characters lacking the innocence that might win you over. Of these, George Rohan’s nerdy William perhaps gets the closest in an accomplished performance. Madeline Watson also has fine stage presence as Mitch. But it is never quite clear what age the adults are portraying – there is a brattish nine-year-old, an abandoned 14-year-old, a nerdish 12-year-old – these are all enormous differences within school age, and it is hard to believe this is the age range actually intended by the production. A smart costumier is controlling the colours, which makes this attractive to look at, but not sufficiently to compensate for the lack of light and shade within the character stories. This was not helped by some colourless songs, which tidy choreography doesn’t save, and I do not blame the five people who walked out during an unnecessary song about erections. By the end, this character’s member was the only thing that was standing.

All in all, this is a tidily presented show from competent performers that clearly has its fans in the audience, but it never casts a spell over me.

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The Blurb:

LAMDA presents the next wave of musical theatre talent in a showdown like no other. Winning is important, but growing up is the real challenge. Join six quirky misfits – and maybe a few audience members – as they compete for spelling glory in this heartfelt and hilarious, Tony Award-winning smash-hit. Packed with infectious songs, witty one-liners and spellbinding surprises, this fast-paced, feel-good show is a joyous celebration of embracing who you really are. The mics are on, the buzzer is primed and the wordsmiths are waiting... Ready to spell F-U-N?