The Sun Comes Up

I see a lot of musicals. I listen to a lot of musicals. I love musicals, but most of the time I never get really into the story and the lives of the characters. I did with 25th Annual Putnum County Spelling Bee. It was nearly flawless, except for the sound, which is always a problem at the Paramount.

What I loved is that it suprised me. The amount of interaction between the characters and the audience, staging choices, Jesus, the voices, and one amazingly high belt.

The script is definitely the star of this show. The songs are cute, and serve the story really well, but it's everything in between that really is fantastic, which is so rare in a musical. The definitions and sentences were hilarious, and monologues, and character definition, it was fantastic. Even rewrites for the tour are brilliant. Logainne has a great monologue moment about Dreamgirls, the movie. David Edward Hughes on TalkinBroadway.com claims that it was improvised, and although he's seen the show in New York, I'm fairly sure that it is a rewrite for the tour. I'm curious about what was in it's place originally. Lawd. I love that this is truly an ensemble show, everyone has these great moments. Sure Olive's plight is delved into a bit more than the others, but each has their particular issue and problems that they learn to deal with through the spelling bee, and we get to see each have a moment of revelation.

When I saw the show last night, the spellers from the audience were very cute. A younger guy was very into it, having a blast playing with the cast members. When they got down to the last audience speller, and had her spell her word, it was hilarious. She's supposed to get it wrong, as it's a harder word, and they sing their big huge "Goodbye". She got it right however, which threw everyone off. The woman playing Rona and the man playing Doug started laughing and whispering to each other. HILARIOUS. I love it when something unexpected happens, to see how actors deal with it. At this point, they can't go on until she leaves. So they called her up again and had her spell the hardest word they could think of. Doug wouldn't give her a sentence either, which was completely in character but also very funny. This doesn't even convey how great it was to watch actors suddenly have to really think about what to do next. I love theatre.

Finally, I give mad props to Jennifer Simard as Rona, the host of the Spelling Bee, and the Champion from the 3rd Annual Spelling Bee. While everyone was very good, and some of the voices were really surprising to me, she blew me away every time. In group numbers I'd hear this glorious high belt following a line I didn't remember from the recording. I'd look around the stage, and every time it was Jennifer wailing as if her life depended on, and yet making it look effortless. I'm not kidding. Although I think I'd kill to see Lisa Howard do it. Rona is officially my favorite character in the show, because while she has this hard edge to her, every time one of the kids went out she looked like she wanted to give them a hug. She looks like she'd give the best hugs. And of course she gets the "I Love You" song, which will almost always make me cry. William Finn really captures musically the longing and wanting of a little girl for affection, any affection at all.

Oh, and yay for candy!