The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee This is London
This is the sort of musical comedy which is likely to amuse or irritate depending on your taste. Designer Christopher Oram has decked out the auditorium like a school gym for this lighthearted look at the American phenomenon of the Spelling Bee competition in which serious young kids devour the dictionary and pit their lexical skills against equally determined enthusiasts.
The earnest youngsters are permitted to ask for a definition and for an illustrative sentence, and with each round the words become progressively more difficult and obscure. To liven things up, William Finn and Rachel Sheinkin have written in parts for the audience – a quartet of gently coerced volunteers take part each night.
Much to the feigned annoyance of the cast, the members of the public get off pretty lightly until the minimal plot demands their elimination, whereupon they are escorted off by Ako Mitchell's Mitch, who's doing his community service dressed as a striped bumble bee. They're probably safer in his hands, though, than in those of Steve Pemberton's rather creepy Vice Principal, who co-hosts the event with Katherine Kingsley's chirpy former winner Rona.
Each kid is something of a misfit with an individual method of getting it right. David Fynn's plump, pompous William traces the words with his ‘magic foot’ and, much to his surprise, discovers a soulmate in Hayley Gallivan's lonely Olive, whose mother is far away in an ashram. Only a fluke got Leaf through to the finals, Chip becomes a victim of a futile attempt to control an embarrassing display of raging teenage hormones, overachieving polymath Marcy learns the liberation of lightening up, and Logainne (with a lisp and two gay dads) gamely spells ‘cystitis’.
You're unlikely to remember a single tune and it's all rather brash, but Fin provides some clever rhymes and director Jamie Lloyd maintains an energetically bouncy 95 minute departure from the serious fare usually seen at this address.
Donmar Theatre
This is the sort of musical comedy which is likely to amuse or irritate depending on your taste. Designer Christopher Oram has decked out the auditorium like a school gym for this lighthearted look at the American phenomenon of the Spelling Bee competition in which serious young kids devour the dictionary and pit their lexical skills against equally determined enthusiasts.
The earnest youngsters are permitted to ask for a definition and for an illustrative sentence, and with each round the words become progressively more difficult and obscure. To liven things up, William Finn and Rachel Sheinkin have written in parts for the audience – a quartet of gently coerced volunteers take part each night.
Much to the feigned annoyance of the cast, the members of the public get off pretty lightly until the minimal plot demands their elimination, whereupon they are escorted off by Ako Mitchell's Mitch, who's doing his community service dressed as a striped bumble bee. They're probably safer in his hands, though, than in those of Steve Pemberton's rather creepy Vice Principal, who co-hosts the event with Katherine Kingsley's chirpy former winner Rona.
Each kid is something of a misfit with an individual method of getting it right. David Fynn's plump, pompous William traces the words with his ‘magic foot’ and, much to his surprise, discovers a soulmate in Hayley Gallivan's lonely Olive, whose mother is far away in an ashram. Only a fluke got Leaf through to the finals, Chip becomes a victim of a futile attempt to control an embarrassing display of raging teenage hormones, overachieving polymath Marcy learns the liberation of lightening up, and Logainne (with a lisp and two gay dads) gamely spells ‘cystitis’.
You're unlikely to remember a single tune and it's all rather brash, but Fin provides some clever rhymes and director Jamie Lloyd maintains an energetically bouncy 95 minute departure from the serious fare usually seen at this address.
Donmar Theatre
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