I saw
The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee on Wednesday. The lobby of the theatre is decorated as a school gymnasium with posters for the upcoming school election and other typical high school ephemera. The set is also a nice representation of a small, midwestern high school gym. It's kind of like the recent television show,
Freaks and Geeks with music. The show is quirky, charming and it has a passel of good performances. What it doesn't have, unfortunately, is a strong score. It's too bad because I'm a big fan of
William Finn's work.
March of the Falsettos and
Falsettoland are beautiful pieces with wonderful, moving music.
Spelling Bee has a strong book, funny story, wonderful performances and good direction but to quote a certain composer,
There's not a tune you can hum, I want a tune that goes bum, bum, bum ba dum, give me a tune that goes bum bum bum ba dum. Gimme a melody. Why can't you throw 'em a crumb, what's wrong with lettin' em tap their toes a bit, I'll let you know when Stravinsky has a hit (or something similar to that).
I read the NY Times today and I've been listening to some Tony talk from various pundits. People are sayin it's a race between
SB and
Spamalot but I think
Spelling Bee is the weakest of the four shows nominated. A musical with a weak score is NOT the best musical, IMHO (in my humble opinion). I think it's more a race between
Spamalot and
Light in the Piazza or
Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, an underappreciated show, IMHO.
I'm not sure why they decided
Spelling Bee needed to be a musical. It works so well on its own as a play. Sometimes the music interrupts the flow and, for me, stops the show. And I will agree with some critics (the show has received almost unanimous praise but there are some dissenters) that at times it seems like a long skit. It's the direction and performances that pull it all together. I recommend the show but with reservations. As charming and as quirky and cute as it is, I just don't think it's a strong musical. Part of this may be a reaction to the hype, too. That's always a problem. It came out of Second Stage (an off-Broadway theatre company here in New York) with raves and the move to Broadway was seen as inevitable. It re-opened at Circle in the Square to the same raves and has become the show to see. I absolutely enjoyed it but I wish it had a better score and it should be trimmed by 10 or 15 minutes.
And now, it's 8:12 am and I must get to work. Don't know what I'll listen to this morning. If I don't see
Pillowman tonight I won't see it before the Tonys because tomorrow I'm seeing a show at Playwrights Horizons (the final show in this year's subscription season) and Sunday I'll be watching the Tonys with my theatre buddies. We will tune in at 7pm to
http://tonyawards.com/to catch the first awards (design, direction, costumes, etc.) and then on to 8pm for the television broadcast
