The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee - Midvale Main Street Theater

Lately, musical comedies like The Book of Mormon and Spamalot have found extreme popularity among audiences. Most of these popular shows are best categorized as farces and have laugh-a-minute jokes, yet tend to lack depth in their characters and stories. The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee is not one of these.

The musical is a bit unconventional. It is in the format of an actual elementary school spelling bee. The characters regularly break the fourth wall and address the audience, whether they be love interests, family members, or actual contestants who they pull up on stage to spell. With a certain amount of improvisation, it is a riot (pandemonium?) and one never knows exactly what to expect next. Whether is absurd words with even more absurd definitions, or the unique and silly characters, it's guaranteed to give a laugh; but what separates this show from the aforementioned farces is that is has sincerity that may even touch your heart a little as you are laughing.

A new theater to my radar, the Midvale Main Street Theater gave an excellent performance of this great show. With a daring line up for normally conservative Utah (Spring Awakening, The Rocky Horror Show), Spelling Bee (music and lyrics by William Finn) drew a large crowd and pleased them all. Michelle Dodge and Jourdan Kelly Dixon played the "adult" proctors of the competition. The roles call for a significant amount of improvisation and Dodge's self-involved and proper former winner juxtaposed with Dixon's portrayal of an educator recently returning after an enigmatic absence who seems to be on some kind of mood-stabalizing drug, the two were a riot with playfully entertaining awkward chemistry.

The entire cast of spellers were adorable at playing half their ages. Mary K Nelson as Marcy Park gave a wonderful performance as a young girl with too many expectations placed on her. Watching her transformation to learn about what is important in life was very rewarding. Garrett Grigg, as the former winner now facing the challenges of puberty gave a sincere performance and showed off some impressive singing skills when he took on the persona of another contestant's father in one of the shows most poignant moments: when Olive (McKenzie Heaton) laments about her parents being absent from the bee and other moments in her life. Heaton's heartfelt portrayal of one of the show's most pitiable characters was passionate and genuine. The trio between her and her parents (played by Grigg and Dodge) "The I Love You Song" was the show's most evocative moment and all three sang beautifully.

Everyone in the cast did an excellent job from the quirky Mitch, (Aaron Ford) the progressive and self-assured Logainne (Erica Renee Smith) to the winner possessing a "magic foot" he used to spell, William Barfée--pronounced bar-FAY (Michael Howell). In an interesting casting decision by the Midvale Theater, they cast a Carolyn Arambula Crow as Trish, the "comforter" who would console the losers, and sometimes give them some life advice. Normally played by a man, Crow was fabulous in the role as a quintessential latina. Her performance was laugh-out-loud funny, yet fully dimensional and realized. Her dedication was apparent in both her singing and her acting leaving the audience dying to see what her next line would be whether she was consoling the actors, or the audience members pulled on stage who inevitably lost.

The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee plays at the Midvale Main Street Theater through April 19th. This is a well-done performance of a fun and sometimes very touching piece of theater.