BEE MINUS
Now playing at Wisteria Theater in North Hollywood is one of the few wonderful musicals from this century so far, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, by William Finn (music and lyrics) and Rachel Sheinkin (book). Now 20 years old, this delightful musical follows a group of middle schoolers as they struggle to endure their soul-crushing lives (as they see it) while trying to win the spelling bee. While I wasn’t completely won over by the production, it left me hungry to spend more time with this musical.
Brayden Hade directs, capably emphasizing the comedy, but barely scraping the surface to explore the characters’ adolescent angst and sheer terror of the spelling bee. Tanya Cyr’s understated set decorated the entire space just enough to give the feeling of a middle school, including a keyboard to the side of the stage, leading me to believe we were going to get a live pianist. Alas, the music was prerecorded, the mute keyboard used only once for a single throwaway bit.
Anasha Milton’s choreography was busy and fell toward clichés and missed opportunities. Instead of using dance to elevate one number, “Magic Foot,” to the ridiculous, she let unimpressive LED sneakers do all the work (at least she didn’t go straight for the kickline the first time the cast linked arms). Josh Collins did double duty as lighting and sound designer, getting surprisingly dynamic lighting from a limited set of equipment, although the poor little motorized lights were sometimes too slow to keep up with the blocking. The show was unnecessarily amplified with actors wearing those distracting face microphones, so the sound was loud and unbalanced and there were many missed audio cues. The Wisteria Theater is a wonderfully intimate space. Why amplify?
The cast is a mixed bag. Their comic timing was tight and their singing was worthy of the delightful music, though some tended to give surface-level performances and I had difficulty believing them as middle-schoolers—not due to age but characterization. Most did multiple roles. Best of the bunch were Taylor Renee Castle (Olive) and Sophia Rose Bellefeuille (Rona), who let their characters’ vulnerability come through, even during the show’s more ridiculous moments. Their performance, with Trae Adair, of “The I Love You Song” was genuinely moving.
Adair (Mitch) got the kindness part of being the bee’s comfort counselor, but missed suppressing the character’s violent past. Tyler Angier (Vice Principal Panch) was delightfully deadpan while delivering the contestants’ answers, but didn’t take advantage of the character’s obsession with Rona. Abby Espiritu (Marcy) was wonderfully on point, fast, and intense. Jenna Luck (Schwartzy) and Drew Maidment (Barfée) were cartoonish. Charming Ali Hoghoughi (Chip) and Danny Holmberg (Leaf) rounded out the cast.
However, the best and most genuine performance of the night was from a cast member (weirdly, not wearing a face mic) whose character was stricken with uncontrollable nervous laughter and was thoroughly endearing. Joke’s on me—she was an audience member. Never having seen the musical, I was unaware that one of the show’s conceits is to pull several audience members on stage to be contestants.
This is Wisteria’s third production in their musical-heavy first season. Even though this mounting of Spelling Bee left me wanting to see the “real thing,” I am looking forward to seeing this talented company grow and mature.
photos by Brayden Hade
The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee
Wisteria Theater
7061 Vineland Ave. in North Hollywood
plenty of free parking in this industrial strip mall
Fri at 8; Sat at 3 & 8; Sun at 3
ends on April 6, 2025
for tickets ($30-$75), visit Wisteria
for more shows, visit Theatre in LA
{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
Mr. McCall,
Your “Spelling Bee” review is spot-on! I found myself nodding along with your observations about the missed opportunities to dive deeper into these characters. That bit about the audience member with nervous laughter being the most authentic performer of the night? Brilliant and painfully true.
What I appreciate most is that you’re not letting small theaters in LA coast by on good intentions. Too many local critics hand out participation trophies, but you’re actually pushing companies like Wisteria to think critically about choices like those face mics in such an intimate space (seriously, why?).
Your writing manages to be both incisive and fair – pointing out the strengths while not shying away from acknowledging weaknesses. I love how you ended on that hopeful note about the company’s potential growth while making it clear this production didn’t quite hit the mark.
Keep holding our theater scene to higher standards! We desperately need critics like you who clearly love the art form enough to demand more from it.