I’m going to start by saying that I watched a musical, as it was all that was readily available to me. I am not a big fan of musicals, and that will have a definite effect on my opinion I’m sure. Further, it is a little difficult for me to determine how a stage performance has been performed, without viewing multiple productions, or at least reading the script. However, as I did not have access to these options, I will try my best. In any case, a few months ago, I had the distinct privilege of watching a Lansing High school production of “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee,” due to one of my friend’s siblings being a stage technician.
Even though I’m not a fan of musicals, I have to say the production was pretty good. Though the music was a bit more simple than I’m used to, it was performed masterfully, though was a bit hard to understand at times (I think this had more to do with the piece than the performers, however). The …show more content…
First, I was struck to find that members of the audience were brought on stage to participate in the spelling bee. Indeed, they are used to illustrate a theme of the musical. A recurring theme is that life is random and unfair; the best speller loses first due to an inopportune erection, all the students are there because their family is, in some way, inadequate. Indeed, even Mitch is there because of parole, one host is there because he was forced into a vice-principal position and the other because she won a spelling bee long ago. The audience members portray this through their leaving of the stage being entirely deterministic. Based on some metric I was unable to determine, the audience members were given either a word that was impossible to misspell, such as “Mexican,” or a word that was impossible to spell with, “no known definition.” As the theme goes, “Life is random and unfair. Life is