Showbiz Players, a community theater with a history spanning three decades, is presenting the 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee at the Madisonville Arts Center in a two-week run through April 25.
This is a swift staging of the show, well within two hours, and the intimacy of the Madisonville facility makes it all the more fun because you feel close to the spellers. Composer William Finn and writer Rachel Shenkin’s show is a nice piece of theater because it cleverly uses the words given to the contestants as catalysts for musical numbers: Olive, who dreams about her absent mother and workaholic dad, is given the word “chimerical” which she defines as “highly fanciful and unrealistic,” words that describe her own mental state perfectly.
This production of Spelling Bee is a great example of how entertaining community theater can be.
Get showtimes, tickets and read Rick Pender's review here.
