This ‘Spelling Bee’ in Creede is S-U-P-E-R

Creede Rep’s The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee pairs winning comedy with a tender portrait of belonging.

The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee is a lot like pizza. Even a merely adequate production can still hit the spot because the recipe — eccentric children, absurd vocabulary words and unpredictable audience volunteers — is so reliably enjoyable. When all the ingredients come together, something familiar becomes difficult to resist.

Creede Repertory Theatre serves up an especially satisfying version. Director Emily Van Fleet keeps the jokes flying while allowing each of the six anxious middle-schoolers to register as more than a collection of quirks. Beneath every mispronunciation, outburst and unfortunate bodily distraction is a child searching for connection. Van Fleet captures that longing without sacrificing the show’s buoyant comic spirit.

The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee at Creede Repertory Theatre. | Photo: Brooke Ashlee Photography

Sponsored

Comedy built from character

With music and lyrics by William Finn and a book by Rachel Sheinkin, Spelling Bee follows six young competitors vying for a place at the national championship. As the contest progresses, songs and flashbacks reveal the parental pressure and fear of failure each child carries to the microphone.

Kevin Nelson’s scenic design turns the Mainstage Theatre into the orange-and-yellow gymnasium of Putnam County Elementary School, “Home of the Potatoes!” The large playing area is framed by equipment storage, risers and numerous educational posters, with music director Alec Steinhorn accompanying the action from an onstage piano.

Van Fleet and choreographer Bethany Eilean Talley use that space to establish the contestants before most have said more than a few words. Leaf Coneybear sits too early during the opening choreography, then pops up just as everyone else drops into their chairs. The guarded Marcy Park declines to complete several steps. Logainne SchwartzandGrubenniere begins speaking into a microphone positioned far above her head, sliding her voice downward as comfort counselor Mitch Mahoney lowers it.

The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee at Creede Repertory Theatre. | Photo: Brooke Ashlee Photography

Those details keep the children’s eccentricities rooted in personality. Van Fleet’s decision to let the nine actors portray parents and siblings without elaborate costume changes also preserves momentum. A shift in posture, voice or Mandy Heath’s lighting is enough to introduce a new figure without interrupting the competition.

“Pandemonium” best displays the production’s controlled chaos. Pool noodles, hula hoops and a wheeled scooter board flood the gym as the children rage against receiving harder words than their opponents. Clark Destin Jones’ Leaf hauls himself onto a pull-up bar while the audience volunteers watch from the risers as the rebellion closes in around them.

The volunteers at this performance embraced the risk, including one woman whose unexpected spelling ability kept her in the competition long enough to develop a comic rapport with the actors. The improvisational element makes each performance volatile, and Van Fleet leaves enough room for those unscripted reactions without surrendering control of the scene.

Clark Destin Jones and the cast of The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee performed at Creede Repertory Theatre. | Photo: Brooke Ashlee Photography

The ache beneath the jokes

Jones gives the evening’s most precisely observed comic performance. His Leaf approaches the world with loose-limbed wonder, constantly distracted until a word sends him snapping into an almost possessed state of concentration. Jones finds comedy in that transformation, milking laughs from his expertly calibrated reactions to the events at the bee while keeping the homeschooled outsider’s heart on his sleeve.

Julian Ibarra similarly commits to the physical absurdity of William Barfée’s spelling method. In “Magic Foot,” he stomps and squeaks his way through each letter while the ensemble performs exaggerated choreography from the floor. Maya Tanaka Allwardt turns “I Speak Six Languages” into a thrilling demonstration of Marcy’s relentless competence, flipping across the stage before taking Steinhorn’s place at the piano for an impressive solo.

Maya Tanaka Allwardt and the cast of The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee at Creede Repertory Theatre. | Photo: Brooke Ashlee Photography

Logan Ernstthal understands that Vice Principal Douglas Panch becomes funnier the less he appears to enjoy himself. His dry definitions and strained attempts at geniality suggest a man clinging to professionalism while questioning every decision that brought him back to the bee.

Van Fleet’s calibration slips with Noelia Antweiler’s Logainne. Antweiler has abundant comic energy and stage presence, but the production pushes the character’s lisp, volume and agitation so aggressively that portions of her first-act dialogue become difficult to understand. A touch more restraint would allow Logainne’s intelligence and political anxiety to emerge alongside the laughs.

The emotional center belongs to Sydney Wilson as Olive Ostrovsky, who arrives alone and quietly hopes her absent parents might still appear. During “The I Love You Song,” Wilson joins McKinley Carter and Richaun Stewart as Olive imagines receiving the affection her family has withheld. Wilson does not play the fantasy as an occasion for misery. She embraces its warmth, making the return to reality more painful because Olive briefly experiences the love she wants.

Sydney Wilson and the cast of The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee at Creede Repertory Theatre. | Photo: Brooke Ashlee Photography

That honesty is what distinguishes Van Fleet’s production from a merely competent serving of familiar material. She lets these children be ridiculous while honoring the pressure, loneliness and hope driving them toward the microphone.

The recipe may be dependable, but Creede Rep gives this particular slice enough comic invention and emotional warmth to make it worth savoring.