The musical comedy, “Spelling Bee,” is a winner!

Emily Holden of Fryeburg plays a quiet bookworm who finds a new freedom in the spelling bee -- and flies with the help of the normally mean bully, William, played by Michael Lynch of Westport, Mass.

Your word to spell is “hilarious.”
Ummm, could you use that in a sentence?
“The Tony Award winning musical comedy -- ‘The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee’ is: h-i-l-a-r-i-o-u-s!”

The University of Southern Maine School of Music will present the Maine collegiate premiere of this irresistible new show from October 30 through November 1. Four performances will take place in Corthell Concert Hall on the USM Gorham campus, without an intermission. Curtain is 8 p.m. each night, with an additional 5 p.m. matinee on Sunday. Tickets are $15/$10/$5. Call 780-5555.

Note: Since Saturday is Halloween, there will be costume competition for all audience members that night. Come dressed and win!

Winner of two Tony Awards in 2005, this musical comedy finds six quirky adolescents competing in a fictional spelling bee, run by three equally quirky grown-ups. They all learn that winning isn't everything, and losing doesn't necessarily make you a loser. This tuneful, offbeat, and at times heartwarming show has a twist – at every performance audience members get the chance to become part of the action as on-stage spellers. Thus every show has a new dynamic as the cast adjusts to the unexpected.

James McDonald plays the frustrated vice-principal of a junior high school who is practicing to be the reader, as the bee's hostess, played by Greer Vashon, and Jeremiah Haley, playing the bee's counselor, look on. In USM SOM's production of "The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee."

rector Edward Reichert says he fell in love with the show when he first saw it Off Broadway. He jumped at the chance to stage it when the rights recently became available. (He originally planned to do “Merrily We Roll Along” in this time slot.)Director Edward Reichert says he fell in love with the show when he first saw it Off Broadway. He jumped at the chance to stage it when the rights recently became available. (He originally planned to do “Merrily We Roll Along” in this time slot.) 

The show’s music and lyrics, by William Finn, were called “nimble and upbeat” by the New York Times. The awarding winning book by Rachel Sheinkin takes us into the world of the spelling bee, an arena of verbal combat of geeky adolescents everywhere.

Here in the Putnam County Spelling Bee we meet six contestants: the reigning champ, Chip Tolentino (played by Joey Valliere of Old Orchard Beach); the lisping youngster with two Dads, Logainne Schwartzandgrubenniere (played by Autumn Pound of Portland); the home-schooled, highly distracted Leaf Coneybear (double cast with Kyle Dennis of Pittsfield and Chris Ellis of Litchfield); the loud but sickly bully, William Barfee (played by Roger Marcotte of Rockland and Michael Lynch of Westport, Mass.); the ultimate over-achiever, Marcy Park (Caitlin O’Reilly of Farmington); and the quiet bookworm, Olive Ostrovsky (Emily Holden of Fryeburg and Kelly Mosher of Marstons Mills, Mass.)

Six adolescent spellers in the "The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee" played by: back left to right: Caitlin O'Reilly of Farmington, Roger Marcotte of Rockland, Chris Ellis of Litchfield front, left to right: Joey Valliere of Old Orchard Beach, Kelly Mosher of Marstons Mills, Mass., and Autumn Pound of Portland

The “adults” at the Spelling Bee are as nearly as wacky as the kids. There’s Rona Lisa Perretti (Greer Vashon of Waterville) the Bee’s longtime hostess and former champion; the frustrated vice principal and band director of a local junior high, Douglas Panch (James McDonald of Ipswich, Mass.) who is pressed into service as a substitute word reader; and Mitch Mahoney (Jeremiah Haley of Portland) who acts as the Bee’s comfort counselor, even though he has no idea how to make the kids feel better about misspelling!

Reichert notes that, in addition to developing their own characters, “the two adult roles of the moderator and the host are rather difficult and interesting,” he says, “because they require a lot of ad-libs dealing with the unscripted material involving the changing audience members at each performance. The whole show is certain to be a crowd-pleaser!”

 

The adults in charge of the spelling bee look on (played by L to R: James McDonald of Ipswich, Mass., Greer Vashon of Waterville, and Jeremiah Haley of Portland) as the six adolescents wait to spell (played by L to R: Joey Valliere of Old Orchard Beach, Caitlin O'Reilly of Farmington, Michael Lynch of Westport, Mass., Emily Holden of Fryeburg,  Kyle Dennis of Pittsfield, and Autumn Pound of Portland.)