Thanks to Dancap Productions (along with not one, but TWO babysitters), the Husband and I got to take in the 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee at the Elgin Theatre this Saturday. We saw the matinée. We're such a wild and crazy pair.
We were very excited to see it, not only because we got an afternoon away from the kidlets, but because it is quite possibly one of our favourite shows. I find it very hard to believe that you would go to see this show and not like it. That being said, we didn't enjoy it quite as much as the Broadway version we saw last July.
First off, the venue was ill-chosen, in my opinion. I realize that they probably chose the Elgin because they only have a short run and wanted to get as many bums in the seats as possible. But this show was really meant to be in a smaller venue. The entire theatre is supposed to have the look and feel of a school gymnasium. The Elgin's gilded architecture made the school signs seem out of place. To their credit, they did put in a joke specifically to address this issue.
The actors themselves were very accomplished, but they paled in comparison to their Broadway counterparts. Most notably lacking, in my opinion was Andrew Keenan-Bolger as Leaf Coneybear. This was my favourite character when I first saw the show, the Keenan-Bolger lacks the comedic subtlety to pull off this part. It is a very difficult role to play - requiring the actor to bring a whole other layer than simply what is written - and I just didn't thing he pulled it off. Luckily, Eric Roediger as William Barfee (Bar-FAY, not Barfy) and Dana Steingold as Logainne Schwartzandgrubenierre took up the slack.
Interestingly enough, the role of Olive Ostrovsky was played by Vanessa Ray. If there are any HGTv fans out there, she recently starred in the program Marriage Under Construction. It's a show about a newlywed couple who buy a house in Toronto and renovate it. At the end of the show, they had to sell the house, because "Nessa" got a role on Broadway. I always wondered what show it was, and now I know. She was very cute as Olive, but was missing a bit of the sweet pathetic nature required.
Please don't mistake my comments by thinking that I didn't like the show - I liked it very much. The above are only small quibbles, and those only because we had already seen the show in New York, so had something to compare it to. Newcomers to the show will not miss a thing, and will love every minute of it. For those of you with older children (say, eight and up), you may find that your kids like it too. If you were looking for a show to introduce them to the theatre, may I suggest this one? You'll love it.
And, because it's Musical Mondays, here's the New York cast performing at the Tony's. Watch it - it's too funny:
Comments