| The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee | |
|---|---|
 Original Cast Recording | |
| Music | William Finn |
| Lyrics | William Finn |
| Book | Rachel Sheinkin |
| Basis | C-R-E-P-U-S-C-U-L-E by Rebecca Feldman |
| Productions |
|
| Awards | |
The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee is amusicalcomedy with music and lyrics byWilliam Finn, with a book written by Rachel Sheinkin, created by Rebecca Feldman with additional material by Jay Reiss. The show centers on a fictionalspelling bee set in a geographically ambiguous Putnam Valley Middle School, some students being from various elementary schools. These six quirky adolescents compete in the Bee, run by three equally quirky grown-ups.
The 2005Broadway production, directed byJames Lapine and produced byDavid Stone,James L. Nederlander,Barbara Whitman, Patrick Catullo, Barrington Stage Company and Second Stage Theater, earned good reviews and box-office success and was nominated for sixTony Awards, winning two, including Best Book. The show has spawned various other productions in the United States, and other countries.
An unusual aspect of the show is that four realaudience members are invited on stage to compete in the spelling bee alongside the six young characters. During the2005 Tony Awards, former presidential candidateAl Sharpton competed. Another amusing aspect of the show is that the official pronouncer, usually animprov comedian, provides ridiculous usage-in-a-sentence examples when asked to use words in a sentence. At some shows, adult-only audiences (over age 16) are invited for "Parent-Teacher Conferences" also known as "adult night at the Bee". These performances are peppered with sexual references and profanity inspired by R-rated ad-libs made during rehearsals.
The Broadwaycast album was released on May 31, 2005, and is available fromGhostlight Records, an imprint ofSh-K-Boom Records. The original Broadway cast recording was nominated for aGrammy Award. In April 2021, aDisney film adaptation was announced to be in the works.
The musical was based uponC-R-E-P-U-S-C-U-L-E, an original improvisational play created by Rebecca Feldman and performed by The Farm, a New-York-based improvisational comedy troupe.Sarah Saltzberg,Wendy Wasserstein's weekend nanny, was in the original production, and Wasserstein recommended that Finn see the show. Finn brought Rachel Sheinkin on board, and they worked together with Feldman to transformC-R-E-P-U-S-C-U-L-E into a scripted full-length musical.
Spelling Bee was workshopped and developed at theBarrington Stage Company (BSC),Massachusetts, whereJulianne Boyd is the Artistic Director, in two different stages. In February 2004, a workshop was done in which a first act and parts of a second act were created – this stage of the process was directed by Michael Barakiva and Feldman. The script was fleshed out and the show was given a fuller production in July 2004, directed by Feldman and Michael Unger.[1][2]Dan Knechtges choreographed the workshop, summer productions, and the Broadway production. Dana Harrel produced both productions as the Producer of Stage II at BSC. Several cast members,Dan Fogler (later replaced byJosh Gad when Fogler moved on to TV and movies), Jay Reiss, andSarah Saltzberg remained fromC-R-E-P-U-S-C-U-L-E.Robb Sapp (later replaced byJose Llana when Sapp moved on toWicked),Dashiell Eaves (replaced byDerrick Baskin),Jesse Tyler Ferguson,Celia Keenan-Bolger (joined as Olive Ostrovsky in the summer),Lisa Howard, and Deborah S. Craig were added to the cast, and a full script was created.
The musical openedoff-Broadway at theSecond Stage Theatre on January 11, 2005, in previews, officially on February 7, 2005, and closed on March 20, 2005.[3][4] The production won several awards, among them the 2005Lucille Lortel Awards, Outstanding Musical and 2005Drama Desk Awards, Outstanding Ensemble Performance.[5]
Spelling Bee premiered onBroadway at theCircle in the Square Theatre on April 15, 2005, and closed on January 20, 2008, after 1,136 performances and 21 previews.[6] The director wasJames Lapine and the choreographer was Dan Knechtges. The show wonTony Awards for Best Book (Rachel Sheinkin) and Best Featured Actor (Dan Fogler).
The first production outside the United States was at theMelbourne Theatre Company inMelbourne, Australia, from January 18, 2006, to February 25 at the Playhouse,Arts Centre Melbourne. It starredMarina Prior as Ms. Peretti,David Campbell as Chip, andMagda Szubanski as Barfée.[7] The production, which won the 2006Helpmann Award for Best Musical, was then presented by theSydney Theatre Company at theSydney Theatre in 2007. It again starred Prior and Szubanski, now joined byLisa McCune as Olive. The Sydney season opened on June 11, 2007, and closed in August 2007.[8]
The musical was produced inSan Francisco, California, at the Post Street Theatre opening on March 1, 2006, and closing on September 3, 2006.[9] InChicago the run began on April 11, 2006, at the Drury Lane Theatre, Water Tower Place, closing on March 25, 2007. The production was directed by James Lapine.[10][11] InBoston it opened at the Wilbur Theatre on September 26, 2006, and closed December 31, 2006. The majority of the San Francisco cast moved to the Boston production.[12][13]
The Equity U.S. National Tour began inBaltimore, Maryland at the Hippodrome Theatre on September 19, 2006, going through May 2007, visiting over 30 cities across the U.S.[14] From May 24 to June 17, 2007, the original Broadway cast reunited for a limited four-week run at the Wadsworth Theater in Los Angeles.[15] The musical returned to Barrington Stage Company, where it originated, in 2008, and ran from June 11 to July 12, 2008.[16] The production included several cast members from the touring company and was a co-production with North Shore Theatre. The first performancein-the-round was at the North Shore Music Theatre inBeverly, Massachusetts from August 12–31, 2008.[17]
In 2007, the first translated production opened inSeoul, South Korea, with all of the music and dialogue in Korean, but the words were spelled in English. In September 2008, a German-language adaptation premiered asDer 25 Pattenser Buchstabierwettbewerb.[18]
The 2008–2009 Non-Equity U.S. National Tour premiered on October 11, 2008, at the Union Colony Civic Center inGreeley, Colorado, with an official opening inFort Collins, Colorado on October 14.[19]
The Mason Street Warehouse, Saugatuck Center for the Arts,Saugatuck, Michigan, opened on August 14 and ran through August 31, 2009,[20] directed by Kurt Stamm.[21]
The musical made its UK premiere at theDonmar Warehouse, London, beginning previews on February 11, 2011. It officially opened on February 21, and closed on April 2. The director was Jamie Lloyd.[22]
Spelling Bee made its Scandinavian debut in September 2012 in Oslo, Norway.
Spelling Bee was performed for the first time in Israel, with Hebrew subtitles in October 2012, at the AACI J-Town Playhouse theater in Jerusalem.[23][24]Spelling Bee had an additional series of performances in September 2017 in Israel by the organization The Stage, at the Beit Yad leBanim theatre in Tel Aviv.[25][26]
The original Broadway cast ofSpelling Bee reunited for a one-night only 10th anniversary concert atThe Town Hall on July 6, 2015. All actors reprised their roles for the performance with the exception ofCelia Keenan-Bolger as Olive Ostrovsky, withJenni Barber who had previously played the role on Broadway stepping into the role: Keenan-Bolger joined the cast for the concert's finale, performing Olive's monologue as she had a decade prior. The concert was organized in tribute to original production stage manager Andrea "Spook" Testani-Gordon, who died from cancer the previous November.[27][28]
In 2024, The Sandbox Collective, aManila-based theater company, stagedSpelling Bee in the Philippines from February 24 to March 17. It was directed by Filipino theater veteran Missy Maramara and produced in collaboration withABS-CBN,Star Magic, and Teatro Kapamilya.[29] The Philippine staging of the musical received highly favorable reviews. Gabriel Bohol ofTatler Asia lauded the production's "impeccable" cast, describing them as "nothing short of perfect".[30]
A 20th anniversary Off-Broadway revival ofSpelling Bee opened atNew World Stages on November 17, 2025, after previews beginning on November 7. Directed by Danny Mefford, the production used most of the creative team and some of the cast of a previous production that played at theJohn F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. the previous year. The production is scheduled to play a limited 14-week run.[31][32][33]
While setting up for the spelling bee, moderator Rona Lisa Peretti has a flashback to when she won the Third Annual Spelling Bee, but is interrupted by the entrance of Chip Tolentino. The spellers are introduced as they enter and they sing about their anticipation of the bee ("The Twenty-Fifth Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee"). Rona calls up four audience participants and requests to speak privately to Olive Ostrovsky, who has not yet paid the entrance fee. After Olive reveals that her parents are not present and she arrived by bus, Rona decides to let the fee slide for the moment. She then introduces the official word pronouncer, Douglas Panch, and comfort counselor, Mitch Mahoney. Mitch leads the spellers in thePledge of Allegiance with everyone speaking at different speeds. While Panch explains the rules, Rona gushes over what she loves about the bee ("The Spelling Rules / My Favorite Moment of the Bee 1").
The spelling bee begins. Each time a speller is called, Rona shares a piece of information about them. When Leaf Coneybear is first called up, he has a flashback to when he got into the county bee on a lark. His word iscapybara, which he ends up spelling correctly while in atrance. Olive is shown to be shy and reserved, a result of her largely absent parents. She has come to love spelling by reading the dictionary in her home ("My Friend, the Dictionary"). When William Barfée is called to spell for the first time, Rona describes his unusual technique – he spells the word out on the ground with his foot to get a visual before speaking it. After the audience spellers get easy words (except for the unlucky one who getsepicalyx), the cast spellers rant about how the element of luck makes the bee unfair ("Pandemonium"). Logainne then getscystitis, and is shown studying with her two often-arguing fathers in a flashback. When Leaf is called the second time, he reminisces about how his family calls him "dumb" ("I'm Not That Smart").
Barfée is called, and sings about his technique ("Magic Foot"). When Marcy is called again, she correctly spellsqaimaqam, proving herself to be the best speller, though she is somewhat hurt when Rona claims that she is "all business". Chip is called next, but he is reluctant to take his turn because he has an erection after fantasizing about Leaf's sister, Marigold. Under threat of disqualification (a fact not helped because he is asked to spelltittup), he misspells his word (T-I-T-U-P) and Mitch hauls him off ("Pandemonium (Reprise) / My Favorite Moment of the Bee 2").
At this point, the last audience speller is eliminated. Mitch sings a special serenade to this audience member for making it this far ("Prayer of the Comfort Counselor").
Panch calls a snack break, and Chip passes through the audience selling snacks. He explains to the audience why he lost ("My Unfortunate Erection (Chip's Lament)"). Barfée taunts Chip, who throws a bag of peanutM&M's at him. Barfée is allergic to peanuts, so Olive picks them up for him. Olive and Barfée converse before the second half of the bee begins, with the line from Olive "Did you know that if you switch the first two vowels of Olive, it becomes I love?" Barfée responds with "Well, did you know if you switch the first two vowels of William you get... William?" Olive finishes with "But if you switch the next two, you get Will Aim?", and Barfée begins to develop a crush on Olive.
Logainne describes her two overbearing fathers and the stress that they put on her ("Woe Is Me"). In a montage sequence, the bee is shown progressing through many rounds, ending with Leaf's elimination. He walks away with his head held high, having proven to himself that he is smarter than his family gave him credit for ("I'm Not that Smart (Reprise)").
Marcy reveals more about her stressful life ("I Speak Six Languages"). She is given the wordcamouflage, to which she sighs, "Dear Jesus, can't you come up with a harder word than that?" Jesus then appears to her and teaches her that she is in control of her own life. Resolved to do what she wants rather than what is expected of her, she intentionally misspells the word (camouflajzh) and exits excitedly ("Jesus / Pandemonium (Reprise #2)").
Olive gets a call from her father, who she has been hoping would arrive. Panch attempts to disallow her from answering the phone, but she persuades Rona to take the call for her, leading her to learn that her father will miss the bee due to working longer than expected. Logainne then begins an ad-libbed rant about the bee, her fathers, and current political events. Panch lashes out at Logainne for asking for alternate definitions of a word more than 3 times, and is escorted offstage by Rona and Mitch. One of Logainne's fathers jumps onstage to calm Logainne down and pours some of his soda on the floor to make Barfée's foot stick and thus disrupt his technique.
With Panch calmed down, Olive is called to spell. She imagines her parents being there and giving her the love that she always has wanted and yearned for ("The I Love You Song"). Barfée is called to spell next, and spells his word correctly despite the soda causing his foot to stick. Logainne misspells her next word by over complicating it (vug → V-U-G-G-H-E) ("Woe Is Me (Reprise)") and Rona is excited that it has come down to the final two ("My Favorite Moment of the Bee 3").
The finals are shown through another montage ("Second"), and Olive and Barfée continue to grow closer. Eventually, Olive misspells a word, giving Barfée a chance to win. He is torn between winning and letting Olive win, but with Olive's encouragement, he spells his word correctly. Panch awards Barfée the large trophy and two hundred dollar prize, and, in a surprise act of charity, pays Olive's entrance fee, calling it a "runner-up prize." Olive congratulates Barfée, and each character reads a sentence or two about what they do in the years and decades after the main action of the musical ends ("Finale").
(Songs are not listed in thePlaybill since, with audience members on stage, the timing of the "Goodbye" songs varies with each show and because it could spoil who wins the bee.)
‡ Combined into one track on the cast album
† Not included on the cast album
There is a song on the cast album, called "Why We Like Spelling". This song is sung by all the spellers, but is not in the Broadway production or in the licensed productions.
A song entitled "The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee Massacres the 12 Days of Christmas" was released online as a holiday track sung by the cast. It reveals several different instances of events within the lives of the characters, such as Coneybear being given 2 right socks named "Phil", Olive discussing various places her dad forgets her at, Barfée ruling his sea anemone circus from his basement, Panch's urine laced with Ritalin, Rona's most recent boyfriend breaking up with her, Mitch ending up in and making calls from prison, Logainne explaining her dads giving her stomach ulcers, Chip playing with his little league baseball team, and Marcy receiving the 7th book of Moses (which Logainne repeatedly objects to, claiming there's only 5) while fighting with her understudy who was taking her place because "Deborah [S. Craig, the regular Marcy actress] hurt her knee".
(All can be doubled by the actors playing the major characters.)
The principal casts of notable productions ofThe Twenty-Fifth Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee
| Role | BSC Workshops[34][35] 2004 | Off-Broadway & Broadway 2005 | Melbourne 2006 | National Tour 2006 | San Francisco 2006 | London 2011 | Washington, DC 2024 | Off-Broadway Revival 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rona Lisa Peretti | Lisa Howard | Marina Prior | Jennifer Simard | Betsy Wolfe | Katherine Kingsley | Bonnie Milligan | Lilli Cooper | |
| Douglas Panch | Jay Reiss | Tyler Coppin | James Kall | Jim Cashman | Steve Pemberton | Taran Killam | Jason Kravits | |
| Mitch Mahoney | Dashiell Eaves Derrick Baskin | Derrick Baskin | Bert Labonte | Alan H. Green | James Monroe Iglehart | Ako Mitchell | Alex Joseph Grayson | Matt Manuel |
| Olive Ostrovsky | Rebecca Feldman Celia Keenan-Bolger | Celia Keenan-Bolger | Natalie O'Donnell | Lauren Worsham | Jenni Barber | Hayley Gallivan | Nina White | Jasmine Amy Rogers |
| William Barfée | Dan Fogler | Magda Szubanski | Eric Petersen | Jared Gertner | David Fynn | Kevin McHale | ||
| Logainne SchwartzandGrubenierre | Sarah Saltzberg | Christen O'Leary | Sarah Stiles | Sara Inbar | Iris Roberts | Beanie Feldstein | Autumn Best | |
| Marcy Park | Deborah S. Craig asGramercy Park | Deborah S. Craig | Natalie Mendoza | Katie Boren | Greta Lee | Maria Lawson | Leana Rae Concepcion | |
| Leaf Coneybear | Jesse Tyler Ferguson | Tim Wright | Michael Zahler | Stanley Bahorek | Chris Carswell | Noah Galvin | Justin Cooley | |
| Chip Tolentino | Robb Sapp asTripp Barrington | Jose Llana | David Campbell | Miguel Cervantes | Aaron J. Albano | Harry Hepple | Philippe Arroyo | |
About half an hour before the show begins, audience members in the lobby are given the chance to sign up to participate in the show as "spellers." The registration form asks for name, occupation, hobbies, description of clothing, spelling ability, and age range. Interviewers look for people with no acting experience, unique names, traits, and backgrounds. The audience participants are taken backstage prior to the show and are shown where to stand when called from the audience and given instruction about what to do when called upon to spell. They are asked to request a definition of each word and its usage in a sentence, and to attempt to spell each word rather than giving up. The final audience member to be eliminated is usually given an exceptionally difficult word they are sure to miss; regardless of the spelling the cast reacts with incredulity at their "success," and the next word is "belled" as incorrect before the attempt is completed. During the performance, the actors sitting next to the audience participants periodically whisper hints about when to stand, sit, move in "slow motion," "freeze" or hang on because the seating platform unit is about to spin.
Ms. Peretti calls the spellers to the stage at the beginning of the show, and they are given badges to wear that say "Finalist." As the show proceeds, each one is eliminated with successively more difficult words. The final audience participant to be eliminated is serenaded by Mitch ("Prayer of the Comfort Counselor") on-stage. Mitch also gives each eliminated finalist (both audience members and regular characters) a juice box and a hug.
Katharine Close, the 2006 winner of theScripps National Spelling Bee, was invited to be a contestant at a performance of the show. She was the last speller from the audience to be eliminated and survived fourteen rounds.[36]
The musical treats the audience members as if they were the audience at the fictitious spelling bee. For example, the characters single out audience members as their "family" members. For example, Barfée periodically refers to an age-appropriate woman near the stage as "mom." Similarly, Chip is distracted by an attractive female audience member (or male in the adults-only version), contributing to a misspelling. He is the first contestant eliminated and is thus forced to sell snacks in the audience in the manner of the refreshment hawkers at a sports event. Other characters frequently walk through the auditorium among the audience during the show, sometimes integrating the audience into the show and occasionallydropping the "fourth wall".
Examples of words spelled by characters in performances ofSpelling Bee includeastrobleme,cat,dinosaur,hasenpfeffer,origami (Adult Show), andweltanschauung. Words spelled by the audience volunteers are often unscripted and sometimes improvised by the cast to gently poke fun at the volunteer speller. Past examples include:dystopia,cenacle,elephant,hemidemisemiquaver,homunculus,cow,jihad,lysergic acid diethylamide,castoreum anddidgeridoo spelt byRolf Harris.Julie Andrews missed "supercalifragilisticexpialidocious" when she was a guest speller on KIDS night on Broadway, 2007.[37]
Charles Isherwood, in his review of the Broadway production forThe New York Times, wrote "Most crucially, the affectionate performances of the six actors burdened with the daunting challenge of inhabiting young souls have not been stretched into grotesque shape by the move to a large theater... William Finn's score sounds plumper and more rewarding than it did Off Broadway. If it occasionally suggests a Saturday morning television cartoon set to music by Stephen Sondheim, that's not inappropriate. And Mr. Finn's more wistful songs provide a nice sprinkling of sugar to complement the sass in Rachel Sheinkin's zinger-filled book... Mr. Lapine has sharpened all the musical's elements without betraying its appealing modesty." (NY Times Critics Pick).[38]
In April 2021,Walt Disney Pictures announced plans to develop a film adaptation of the musical, to be produced byDan Lin and Jonathan Eirich through theirRideback banner, with Ryan Halprin as executive producer.[39]
On January 25, 2023, the school board for Cardinal Local School District in Ohio halted a student production of the musical on the grounds that it was "vulgar."[40] The Cardinal School District denied their decision was made because the musical depicts two gay characters,[41] and confirmed that a "revised" version of the play would proceed as planned.[42]
| Year | Award Ceremony | Category | Nominee | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2005 | Drama Desk Award | Outstanding Book of a Musical | Rachel Sheinkin | Won |
| Outstanding Ensemble Performance | Won | |||
| Outstanding Director of a Musical | James Lapine | Won | ||
| Lucille Lortel Award | Outstanding Musical | Won | ||
| Outstanding Featured Actor | Dan Fogler | Won | ||
| Outstanding Director | James Lapine | Nominated | ||
| Outstanding Choreographer | Dan Knechtges | Nominated | ||
| Theatre World Award | Dan Fogler | Won | ||
| Celia Keenan-Bolger | Won | |||
| Year | Award Ceremony | Category | Nominee | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2005 | Drama Desk Award | Outstanding Musical | Nominated | |
| Outstanding Lyrics | William Finn | Nominated | ||
| Outstanding Music | Nominated | |||
| Tony Award | Best Musical | Nominated | ||
| Best Book of a Musical | Rachel Sheinkin | Won | ||
| Best Original Score | William Finn | Nominated | ||
| Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Musical | Dan Fogler | Won | ||
| Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Musical | Celia Keenan-Bolger | Nominated | ||
| Best Direction of a Musical | James Lapine | Nominated | ||
| 2006 | Grammy Award | Best Musical Theater Album | Nominated | |
