Presented by the theater company called Sandbox Collective, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee is sweet and light-hearted entertainment. First produced on Broadway in 2005, the musical features songs by William Finn and a book by Rachel Sheinkin who won the Tony Award for Best Book of a Musical. The show ran on Broadway for three years and has since then been staged in several cities around the world.
Count on Sandbox Collective to pick up the show for local audiences. This company specializes in musicals with a fresh and youthful vibe. Spelling Bee made its debut in Manila before the pandemic. To mark its 10th anniversary, Sandbox Collective’s founder Toff de Venecia has given it a return engagement, this time at the Power Mac Center Spotlight Blackbox Theater at Circuit Makati. It runs until March 17.
Set in a fictional high school in a fictional American town, Spelling Bee has a thin plot but its strong suit is the characters. They’re quirky teen-agers but are champion spellers. Throughout the show, we get to witness their prowess and learn a thing or two about their personal hang-ups. It plays like a juvenile version of A Chorus Line. But instead of dancers auditioning for a show, we have spelling bee contestants exposing their souls in song and dance.
The appeal of this musical lies in the simplicity of its story. It is told unpretentiously and quickly. It’s not a behind-the-scenes-look at spelling bees. It isn’t out to shove a social message down our throats. It’s just about kids trying to get through that awkward stage of their lives. Rest assured the drama is never intense. This isn’t Rent or Les Miserables. The cast is out to give us a good time.
The contest proper happens in the two acts. In between spelling bouts, the story segues into the personal lives of the kids. By the way, this show is an interactive musical. Four members of the audience are preselected to compete in the spelling bee onstage as “Guest Spellers.” This gimmick paves the way for an unpredictable outcome. Members of the cast have been primed to adjust to the reactions of the guest spellers. Thus not every performance of Spelling Bee is ever the same.
The show I caught had four celebrity guest spellers who got to interact with the contest emcees played Robbie Guevara and Liesl Batucan-Del Rosario. These two theater pros know how to make nervous guest spellers like Enchong Dee feel at ease. But the two hosts had it coming when comedian Jon Santos was called to participate. This formidable authority on improv used his comedic antics to leave the house in stitches. Santos almost stole the show. Guest spellers have to be eliminated before the end of the first act so they’re given hard words to spell to get them off the stage. Well, Jon Santos turned out to be a spelling wizard. His time onstage had to be extended!
Credit the show’s director Missy Maramara for training her cast on improv. A seasoned actress and a stalwart improv performer, she’s the ideal director for a show like Spelling Bee where anything goes. She also chose an amazing set of actors to play the roles and sing and dance like there’s no tomorrow.
Star Magic artists Shanaia Gomez and AC Bonifacio alternate as spelling bee contestant Marcy Park. Both are making their musical theater debut. We saw AC perform and she’s a show-stopper. (Photo courtesy of Sandbox Collective)
Some of these young thespians are resident artists of ABS-CBN’s Star Magic. Yes, you read that right. The beautiful stars of Star Magic get to show what they can do in live musical theater, and we’re impressed. The fact that they’re just in their 20s is a plus. In the original Broadway production, the contestants were played by older, mature actors dressed as dorky high school students. From what I’ve seen and heard on YouTube, the acting was too exaggerated and more caricature-like.
Elian Dominguez makes his theater debut as awkward spelling bee contestant. He’s a crowd-pleaser. (Photo by the author).
Spelling Bee’s protagonist are likable underdogs. They’re like the Peanuts characters struggling through adolescence. The show even has its own Linus called Leaf Coneybear who is never without his teddy bear. Played by Elian Dominguez, he’s the first character we see in the play, and the character we remember most. Leaf Coneybear has the funniest song (I’m Not That Smart), and Dominguez sings it well . He also delivers his lines flawlessly .
Another crowd-pleasing song is Magic Foot sung by Ron Balgos. The catchy tune has a John Kander (Cabaret, Chicago) ring to it. I can imagine the late Ann Reinking singing and dancing to it. It’s a show-stopper, and it might have had us clamoring for more had the entire ensemble really danced to it like Reinking would have.
It would be unfair to say that any actor stood out. This is an ensemble cast and as the play is written, everyone gets his/her big production number. These young players make the most of it. Each of them brought the house down. One problem, however, is every actor in this production has an alternate player. We’ll never know if the show is better or just as fine with the other set of actors.
Another problem is the sound system. The veteran journalist who invited me to see the show complained that he could understand only half of what the actors were saying. Hard of hearing is a fact of life for those past 80, he sighed. I replied, “It’s not you. I think their mics that make them all sound like they have a cold, except Elian Dominguez. He could be using a more expensive mic.”
The veteran journalist replied, “But the people seated in the back rows seem to hear them well. They laugh at all the punch lines.”
Me: “I bet it’s the alternate cast sitting in the back rows. They’ve memorized the entire play. They’re also cheering their fellow actors.”
Luis Marcelo sings the show’s naughtiest song. (Photo courtesy of Sandbox Collective)
My kind friend wasn’t convinced. He did thoroughly enjoy Luis Marcelo’s rendition of My Unfortunate Erection. It’s an amusing song with naughty lyrics. If performed right, it could be hilarious and also heartwarming. Luis Marcelo sang it right. Or should we say, he rose to the occasion.
