The 25th Annual
Putnam County
Spelling Bee

We headed up to San Francisco today to see the musical The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee and enjoyed it thoroughly. The show was fun, but it was our special relationship with its star that made it memorable.

As we stepped into the theater lobby, decorated to look like an elementary school, one of the Spelling Bee coordinators recruited Kevin to be in the spelling bee. Each show they pull aside audience members and interview them with a series of questions to see if they might be suitable to be in the production. They would ultimately narrow their list to just 10 and moments before show time they narrowed again, this time to just four audience members.

As the show opens, the host announces that they are still missing four additional finalists including Kevin who is called up from the audience.  The cast included six kids (played by adults), three adult audience members and twelve-year-old Kevin.

The audience members are shuffled around the stage by the cast members as the show progresses and they all do their best to participate in the production numbers they've never seen before.

The actors are first to spell, and each has a hideously difficult word which they spell with ease. Ultimately the first audience members is called to take her place center stage in front of the microphone and given the word "jihad." The adult asks for its definition and to have it used in a sentence ("Billy and Johnny look over the wall and see a Jihad coming their way.")  Adult number one misspells "jihad" and is given a big hug, a juice box and is shown the stairs back into the audience.  The show goes on.

Other audience members are given words like "Mexican" and "indigent" which are correctly spelled. Then the host announces, "Mr. Harris it's your turn."  As Kevin makes his way to the front of the stage we hear color commentary in the background, "Mr. Harris never goes in public without his shiny black shoes." Kevin's face tenses as the audience laughs at the theater clothes his mother selected.

"Mr. Harris, your word is 'cow.'"  Kevin, wanting to capture as much limelight as possible, asks for its definition and his told by a cranky Pronouncer, "it means a cow." Unperturbed Kevin asks for it to be used in a sentence and is given the sentence, "Your word is cow."  Kevin spells: C - O - W.  And as he finishes his word he triggers another production number about how some kids get really easy words.  The show goes on.

More singing, more jokes (many written expressly for the San Francisco audience) and, of course, more spelling. We get to know the characters and Kevin starts to relax up on stage. The second round of questions get significantly harder for the audience members and Kevin's remaining two colleagues are retired to their seats with a hug and a juicebox.  Kevin remains on the stage and the show goes on.

There is more singing and Kevin does some dancing looking like he had rehearsed the number a hundred times. At one point the cast freezes and holds a tableau pose and like a rock, Kevin follows suit. 

An hour into the show, the announcer calls Kevin for his second round question. In a booming voice over the microphone we hear, "Mr. Harris."

Kevin leaves his fellow cast members and this time as he makes his way front and center we hear, "In his spare time Kevin performs as a Dick Gephardt look alike."

With no recognition of who Dick Gephardt is, he takes his place at the microphone. His word is "caterjune."  There is a hush as the audience tries to piece together the phonetics.  Kevin asks for a definition that I can't remember and numerous Internet searches can't seem to find (we wonder if it is made up). Kevin then slowly starts spelling.  C - A - T - E - R and after the briefest of pauses as he looked into the audience at his Grandmother June sitting in the third row, J-U-N-E.  There is silence as we wait for the inevitable bell, but instead a surprised Pronouncer declares, "that's correct." For the first time in this matinee performance the audience truly roars.  Kevin smiled and returned to his seat back up on the stage. He was greeted by cold stares by his fellow cast members implying that he was supposed to be eliminated.

But, before Kevin could get comfortable, the Pronouncer boomed into the microphone, "Mr. Harris."  Kevin didn't protest the fact that he was being asked to bat out of order and returned to his rightful home--center stage.  The spotlight tightened around his face and the Pronouncer went on to pronounce a 15 syllable word.  Kevin started to ask for a definition but was told he wouldn't be getting one. He asked for it in a sentence and was again denied.  He gave it his best shot but before he could get two letters out of his mouth the bell was struck.

Yet another production number as the entire cast accompanied Kevin to his seat.  Yes, he got a hug and a juice box.

It was a fun show and Kevin was thrilled to make his San Francisco professional stage debut.

July 9, 2006

© Greg Harris, 2006