The sets at the Bucks County Playhouse this season have gotten progressively larger and more creative to create ever-expanding illusions of depth. But for the musical 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, the last production for the summer season, the stage has been extended farther than ever. Here, it encompasses the entire theater.
The premise is simple: A group of high-strung students in a high school “gymacafatorioum” in what is assumedly a semi-rural or suburban area compete in a spelling bee. Of course, there’s plenty of comedic, and some dramatic, potential in the setup, and directors Alexander Fraser and Robyn Goodman manage to mine just about all of it.
elling BAnd to do so, they use the entire stage — and the walls around it, and the people in the audience.
The nature of the event lends itself well to announcers addressing the audience as if they were actually at the bee and not the Playhouse. And, touches like fluorescent lights at the top of the set, a curtain around the bottom of the stage and a nauseating shade of green paint around the facade expertly evoke a primary school.
It does it so well, in fact, that you’d be forgiven for believing for a moment that the vice principal character, noted as being from Upper Perkiomen High School in nearby Montgomery County, is actually a cameo.
Of course, it’s not — it’s actually Colin Hanlon, perhaps best known for his role as Steven on Modern Family. Here,he performs with a weariness that honestly makes you believe he’s just tired of these damn kids.
Some of those kids, however, are cameos of a sort: a few of the contestants in the bee are actually audience members who sign up before the show begins. It takes a moment to realize, but once you do, the high-wire act begins.
It’s fun watching the adults, who are given a few minimal instructions, navigate actual spelling questions — and to watch the pros work with them on the spot. Of special note at the performance I attended was Sheila Tuncellito, whose competitive inclinations — according to her husband, Gene, after the show — kicked in toward the end of the first act.
As the last audience member still on stage, Hanlon had to keep calling her up to spell increasingly difficult words. Finally, he disqualified her for missing the fictitious “silent q” in “lysergic acid diethylamide,” breaking a moment of authentic tension, to great comedic effect, as Tuncellito was clearly intent on getting it right.
But, that’s not to say the interactive antics overshadowed the regular cast. Far from it — the ensemble clearly had a lot of fun with their outlandish characters. The production was a cycle of tension and release, with the contestants constantly getting themselves wound up on stage before finding release in a song — “Pandemonium,” especially, with frenetic choreography that fills the entire stage — or the occasional sentimental moment.
It’s also to the actors’ credit that they were often able to navigate some tired character tropes that, if we’re being less charitable, could be described as cheap stereotypes. The students, for instance, include an overachieving Asian girl and a portly, curly-haired nerdy white kid with a speech impediment. And, there are plenty of allusions to parents who hover too much or push their children too hard to succeed academically.
You could argue that clearly the script addresses contemporary and familiar trends and sends them up. But there are no great revelations about why these behaviors persist, or what to do about them, or even any new insights on how they affect people. And, on stage it sometimes just seems like an extra challenge for the actors to transcend these tropes and make the characters seem fresh and alive — and, occasionally, someone you actually care about.
That’s especially the case for Caitlin Houlahan, who plays Olive, a young girl from a broken home. Played waifish and wide-eyed, she doesn’t think as much about winning the spelling bee as she does about whether her father shows up.
Houlahan does a fantastic job of not overplaying the role, which would have been understandable for easily the most sympathetic character in the production. Instead, she maintains just the right amount of vulnerability while interacting with her obnoxious competitors, scanning the audience for her parents, and actually spelling her words. Her performance in “The I Love You Song,” toward the end of the second act, is easily the most touching moment of the production.
Elsewhere, comedy abounds. George Salazar and Paul Pilcz are over-the-top as socially awkward rivals, and Katie Ladner puts some great touches on her nervous, overachieving character. All around, the cast does a great job of occasionally letting their characters break and shatter before collecting them again.
In the end, the production overcomes any shortcomings in the script to offer a fun, fast-moving two hours — certainly more enjoyable than the real thing.
The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee has been extended to Sept. 13 at the Bucks County Playhouse, 70 South Main St. in New Hope. For information, call 215.862.2121 or visit www.bcptheater.org.
