The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee continuous show on Broadway in NY (10/07)
Can you spell
M-I-L-E-S-T-O-N-E??
Celebrates 1,000th Broadway Performance
and Welcomes 4,000th Volunteer Speller
On Sunday, September 23 at 7:30pm
The Broadway musical The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee will celebrate its 1,000th Broadway performance and will welcome its 4,000th volunteer speller on Broadway on Sunday, September 23 at 7:30pm at Circle in the Square Theatre (50th St., between Broadway and 8th).
Over the past 1,000 performances:
The company has welcomed 4,000 volunteer spellers –
almost all appearing on a Broadway stage for the first time
* * * * * *
4,000 volunteers have given their best shot at correctly spelling:
C-E-N-A-C-L-E
Definition: A dining room, specifically the room where the last supper was held
Sentence: In the cenacle, Jesus said, “I’m a Jew but being that one of you is going to betray me I’m ordering the shrimp.”
or
V-I-G-I-N-T-I-L-L-I-O-N
Definition: Twenty million
Sentence: Billy, if I’ve told you once I’ve told you vigintillion times,
those magazines are daddy’s.
* * * * * *
The tightly-wound Logainne Schwartzandgrubenierre has lost her cool 1,000 times. Just a couple of her tirades from the past two years:
“This bee is about as haphazard as Dick Cheney’s aim! Look, I know accidents happen – I occasionally still wet the bed after a particularly scary dream about Karl Rove – but the fact that this information was kept private for 24 hours is abominable!!
Like my dads always say to each other, ‘I want to know immediately if you get peppered in the woods by another man – especially if he’s a Republican!’”
“This Bee is about as ridiculous as Leona Helmsley leaving her dog 12 million dollars! As my Carl-Dad said ‘I guess she has to take care of her little bitch.’ But seriously, there are so many other things that money could be used for like the school system or the environmental protection act. I think those causes are too liberal for her so my Dan-Dad said if she were a true Republican she would use that money to renovate airport bathrooms so that no more ‘innocent’ senators go to jail.”
* * * * * *
Chip Tolentino has showered the audience with an estimated 6,000 bags of chips,
6,000 bags of gummi bears, 4,000 bags of goobers, 2,000 bags of peanut M&M’s,
and countless handfuls of hard candies.
* * * * * *
The company has out-spelled JULIE ANDREWS, LEA SALONGA,
RAUL ESPARZA, BRIAN STOKES MITCHELL, CURTIS SLIWA,
National Spelling Bee Champ KELLY CLOSE, EMMA WALTON HAMILTON,
and AL SHARPTON (in his infamous cameo on the 2005 Tony Awards), among others…
* * * * * *
A hilariously hip musical comedy, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee features six young people in the throes of puberty, overseen by grown-ups who barely managed to escape childhood themselves, learning that winning isn’t everything and that losing doesn’t necessarily make you a loser. At each performance, four audience volunteers are invited onstage to participate in the Bee.
Charles Isherwood of the New York Times called The 25thAnnual Putnam County Spelling Bee “irresistible and entirely lovable,” praising William Finn’s “nimble, upbeat score,” Rachel Sheinkin’s “riotously funny” Tony Award-winning book and James Lapine’s “impeccable” direction. Terry Teachout in the Wall Street Journal called the show “the best in town – that rarity of rarities, a super-smart show that is also a bona fide crowd-pleaser.” David Rooney of Variety stated that, “this winning new musical is so generously warm-hearted, only the most bitter misanthrope could resist its charms.” And Michael Kuchwara of the Associated Press simply asked, “How do you spell h-i-t?”
The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee has music and lyrics by William Finn, book by Rachel Sheinkin, conceived by Rebecca Feldman and directed by James Lapine.
The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee currently stars Aaron J. Albano as Chip Tolentino, Stanley Bahorek as Leaf Coneybear, Jenni Barber as Olive Ostrovsky, Jared Gertner as William Barfee, James Monroe Iglehart as comfort counselor Mitch Mahoney, Sara Inbar as Logainne Schwartzandgrubinneirre, Greta Lee as Marcy Park, Daniel Pearce as Vice Principal Douglas Panch, and Jennifer Simard as Rona Lisa Perretti.
The 25thAnnual Putnam County Spelling Bee is performed at Broadway’s Circle in the Square (50th St., between Broadway and 8th) on the following schedule: Tuesday at 7pm, Wednesday at 2pm, Thursday – Friday at 8pm, Saturday at 2pm and 8pm, and Sunday at 3pm and 7:30pm. Tickets are available through Telecharge, (212) 239-6200 or www.telecharge.com, or by visiting the Circle in the Square Theatre box office. Tickets prices are $100.00 and $50.00. Premium seating is available.
For more information, please visit www.spellingbeethemusical.com.