Bravi! Bravi! Bravissimi! to director Colin Hanlon, choreographer Nancy Renee Braun, and the entire cast and design team of the George Street Playhouse production to “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee.”
Hanlon’s mounting avoids all of the pitfalls that mar most stagings of William Finn and Rachel Sheinkin’s loopy musical about bright children getting past their family issues, overriding ambition, and personal quirks to compete in a contest that means something to them and gives them value.
Finn and Sheinkin, working from an idea by Rebecca Feldman, lovingly lampoon each character and the spelling bee setting while displaying the characters’ positive traits and creating a feeling of warmth for the contestants and their goal: to trounce the others in a competition in which most of them know they excel.
More than any of the 15 or so productions I’ve seen since “Spelling Bee” emerged in 2005, Hanlon’s is the first one I’ve liked without reservation. Heck, it’s the first one I’ve seen that justified producing the show at all.
Usually, I get bored with the concept or sit there rolling my eyes at the attempts directors make in the name of humor to exaggerate characters who are already loaded with neuroses, rituals, and sundry other idiosyncrasies to the point that the extreme becomes the absurd. And labored.
Hanlon and company show “The 25th Annual Putman County Spelling Bee” in its purest state. While being creatively theatrical and making the production different in significant ways from others, Hanlon lets the virtues — and comedy — of Finn and Sheinkin’s work come through. He realized the intrinsic qualities of the piece and allowed them to take center stage while making them exciting.
For a start, all six participants in the bee come across as authentic. You can see them living among a family, going to school, having some life, and being a tad eccentric. Hanlon doesn’t let any of them succumb to being freaks, as some directors do. He makes their peculiarities part of a general personality and uses them to intelligently comic and tender advantage.
That’s the thing about this production. It’s smart.
The first hint it will be comes the minute one enters the Arthur Laurents Theater and sees Jason Simms’ perfect set. It is an authentic high school auditorium, a little worn as if it has been home to many events over several decades. Touches like a glassed-in bulletin board, pom-poms in school colors, and decorations made from construction paper take one back to adolescent days spent in just this kind of room.
Simms finds the right balance between the witty and the tacky. It sets the tone for all Hanlon and Braun will do next. Which is plenty.
The director, who has appeared in “Spelling Bee” as an actor, finds the core of each scene and keeps things moving efficiently while nailing each joke and providing some updates that add markedly on this “Spelling Bee’s” cleverness. And on several occasions, the additions of Hanlon’s production are more biting than what Finn or Sheinkin provided in 2005. (One exception is a choice too trendy.)
In general, Hanlon’s is a joyous production. I grinned or smiled broadly while admiring how inventive the director and choreographer were while never getting outlandish. Braun’s work is fanciful and pays homage to lot of great Broadway dance moves, but it creates fun while staying true to its purpose.
Kudos to Hanlon and Pat McCorkle of McCorkle Casting for assembling such a perfect ensemble. Though clearly acting, some of these performers look as if they could have come to the stage from real life.
Any time you look at Sammy Pignalosa playing the latter-day hippie Leaf Coneybear, you see someone with a happy, open expression who enjoys life and seems thrilled to be part of the bee and all that pertains to it. It adds empathy to Leaf, who is considered to be the dunce of a large, talented family, and doesn’t believe he stands a chance to win. (Neither do we until we see the almost clairvoyant trait Finn and Sheinkin give Leaf and see Pignalosa act it so shrewdly.)
Sumi Yu is another who stuns as the cockily superior and faultlessly prepared genius, Marcy Park. Yu shows every bit of that almost innate contempt with a straightforward expression that allows some amusement to temper its indifference. She is also positively exuberant in a sequence that changes Marcy and her life significantly.
Coleman Cummings’ character, Chip Tolentino, the defending champion whose teenage libido causes him to muff a word, is said to have a great pitching arm, one good enough to draw scouts. Cummings proves fiction to be true in a sequence in which Chip throws candy to the audience. The Phillies or Mets might want to look at this kid. He had accuracy and power in every pitch.
Angel Lin shows the strain and the fight hammered into her by Logainne’s often quarreling fathers who tell her no one can stand a loser. Lin also has a beat on showing Logainne’s activism. You believe her sincerity in her cause as well as the terror Logainne has of flubbing and disappointing her dads.
Jordan Matthew Brown stands out for making the nerdy, bullying, obsessed William Barfée, forever frustrated by people failing to pronounce the accent aigu in his last name. Brown transforms seamlessly from irredeemable brat to guy you root for and back in ways that enhance and enrich Sheinkin’s script.
Lila Coogan expresses all of the relative normality yet repressed hurt of the necessarily independent Olive Ostrovsky. Simply but clearly, she shows the poise and angst of her character.
Ally Bonino is another who is flawless in her portrayal of a former bee champ, who rules the roost and keeps all in order while recalling the pride she had in winning.
No one could improve on Kilty Reidy’s take on a high school vice principal roped into being a judge in his first month back at work after a five-year rehab of some kind. Reidy’s Douglas Panch oozes with sarcasm while being a disciplinarian the contestants abide. He is also a sharp ad libber: “Spelling Bee” invites three members of the audience to compete against the scripted actors.
And Aaron Michael Ray as a parolee pressed into community service as a bodyguard is as resourceful and imaginatively comic as his castmates. Ray also has a nice collection of expressions and dance moves.
Costumes by Lisa Zinni are as impeccable as Simms’ versatile set. Sound by Cody Spencer and lighting by Joe Saint keep Hanlon’s positively perfect storm brewing with precision.
The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, George Street Playhouse, New Brunswick Performing Arts Center, 11 Livingston Avenue, New Brunswick, through Sunday, April 9, Wednesday through Saturday, 8 p.m., Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday, 2 p.m., and Sunday, April 2, 7 p.m.. $45 to $120. 732-246-7717 or www.georgestreetplayhouse.org.
