Review Of "The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee"

On February 27th Friday night, I went to see the funny, and emotional musical where the audience can get to laugh, learn, and also participate. It was called “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee”. It was so much fun watching the musical because of its interesting characters, informational dialogues, great music, and interaction with the audience.

I felt like because the characters had so many different personalities, and different pasts, the musical was interesting. The flashbacks the spellers had helped me to recognize them more, and understand their situations so much better. The transitions between the flashbacks, and the present time was enough to understand characters’ emotions at that time. The musical’s main idea was created around every spellers’ past. The flashbacks that introduced us the characters also made the musical fun, since the setting has changed time to time so that it didn’t always take place in the spelling bee. The characters were completely different from each other. For example Marcy Park, who had a pretentious air, was the one who had the ability to do everything, but also complained about most of the things in her life. On the other hand Olive Ostrovsky was very naive, and kind to others. 

The dialogues that the vice principal Douglas Panch, and Rona Lisa Peretti have had with the spellers were very informational. I had learned a lot of new words because they sometimes defined the words that spellers had to spell. Learning new words made it fun. The sentences that they were asked to use in were so funny, too.

The musical was also enjoyable thanks to the fun music that took place in the play. Singing was another way for characters to express their feeling, to tell their stories, or to talk to the audience. 

I feel like the best part of this musical was the interaction with the audience. In the beginning of the play, Rona Lisa Perretti announced four people from the audience to join to the musical as a speller. That made it so exciting, because the spellers were chosen randomly; it even included some teachers which made it even funnier. In some part of the musical Chip Tolentino started throwing snacks at the audience. It was another way that made the audience get more interested in the play.

I really liked the stage setting, and the decors. They gave an impression of a gym as they had to. The lights were the most important elements in the musical. Whenever a character had a flashback the stage got darker, so that we could understand that the flashback took place at another time, and was in their mind.

I had so much fun during the musical. I got to laugh, think, and learn. It was a great musical.