The Midnight Train Crossing

So after the usual parking adventures, we ended up at the theatre a bit early... well not amazingly early. The show was at 2 and we were in the theatre at 1:25, but it felt early because there weren't too many people there.
But I was able to get my pin and my program. The woman who sold me the things was very friendly. She said that she'd seen the show forty times.

While we were in the lobby, a guy in an official looking outfit approached us with a clipboard and asked if either of us were interested in being "spellers." He said that we didn't have to act or anything, we just had to go up there and spell our best.
Audience participation is all well and good, but I'd much much rather watch the show and be in it! So I politely declined. He didn't look that upset. I think there were a lot more people that were interested.

My mom managed to score some very good seats - fifth row, dead center. We figured some season ticket holder must have exchanged tickets.

The set made me giggle as soon as I saw it. The Spelling Bee takes place in a gymnasium. It was clearly a gym because it had climbing ropes and basketball hoops tucked away near the ceiling, and it had gym lights. It makes sense, considering it's a spelling bee. There were also banners hanging from the ceiling, the Putnam Piranhas won the caper tossing championship and second place in the hurling competition. There was also an advertisement for the Putnam Optometrists - the sponsors for the event.
The people in the audience were treated as people in the audience of the spelling bee, and so sometimes the characters would talk to us.

So the first character on stage was Rona Lisa Peretti (Roberta Duchak), Putnam County's top real estate agent and a former Spelling Bee champion.

In addition to the spellers and Ms Peretti, there was also the other judge, Douglas Panch (James Kall), vice principle of some school and Mitch Mahoney (Kevin Smith Kirkwood) their Comfort Counselor who gives the contestant hugs and juice boxes.

The rules are, that after given a word, the contestant may ask for the definition, the country of origin, and the word used in a sentence. Which they did, a lot. And the definitions and sentences were usually pretty funny indeed.

Before I get into what I liked about the cast, I want to talk about the spellers from the audience. There were four of them, an older woman, a girl about my age or so, a man and a little boy. They were all given numbers and sat on the bleachers, following the directions of the cast. In usual spelling bee style, they were called up to the microphone and asked to spell words. Most of the time, they did ask for definitions and sentences.
My favorite one was when they gave the kid the word "Cow." He asked for the definition: "It's a cow." He asked for it to be used in a sentence: "Spell the word cow"

It was fun watching Ms Peretti and Mr. Panch come up with ways to make fun of the contestants. The little boy "won his school's Ron Howard look-a-like contest" and "next semester will be attending Hogwart's school for witchcraft and wizardry"
They made fun of the other gal's wardrobe. She was wearing really sparkly red high-heels, so of course there were Dorothy and wizard of oz references. My favorite comment about the final contestant was "He likes to intimidate their opponents by dressing like their father"

Each contestant would get a hug from Mitch and a juice box after they were eliminated. My favorite out of those was when the girl got eliminated... Mitch gave her a couple of hugs.

The final contestant was the man, and he was given a word that I think was made up. When he asked for the definition, Mr Panch responded: "Unknown"
But he spelled it correctly, much to the shock of the judges. So they gave him another word - a really long word - and dinged him out before he finished. He was given a huge round of applause.
So that was fun, and made me even gladder that I didn't agree to do it. I'd much rather watch the show than be in it.

So onto my favorite characters. The comfort coach was definitely one of my favorites. Mitch Mahoney, played by Kevin Smith Kirkwood is a reformed felon serving out his community service sentence. He was playing up a stereotype and he did a good job of being somewhat gangster. He did complain at one point that he didn't like being around all of these weird kids, giving comfort to them when he didn't think that what they were going through was all that bad.
He also had a wonderful voice, in his song "Prayer of the Comfort Councilor" which he sang after the last contestant was eliminated.
He also doubled as the roles of Olive's father and Logainne's father.

Marcy Park (Katie Boren) is the over-achieving Asian girl who goes to the catholic school "Our Lady of Intermittent Sorrows" and she was another one of my favorite characters. At first, she didn't do that much, other than spell her words correctly and then inform the judges that she had spelled them correctly.
But then, after Ms Peretti says that Marcy speaks five languages, Marcy snaps. She launches into this song "I Speak Six Languages" where she sings about all of the things that she can do. Besides being a great speller, and skipping three grades, and speaking six languages, she also plays several sports and plays several instruments, including piano (which she demonstrates). And she's tired of always doing everything perfectly.
Her word is camouflage. She stands there for a moment and then prays "Oh Jesus, couldn't you give me a different word?"
And then he appeared in the balcony... I mean in a vision before her. She asks him if he will be disappointed if she loses the spelling bee. He says no, and he also won't be disappointed if she wins it. It's all up to her, because actually, he doesn't really care all that much about this sort of thing.
With that, she proceeds to spell the word "camouflage" with a Z and a J, and then delightfully skips off the stage, ecstatic with her fourth place position.

But my favorite character was Leaf Coneybear, brilliantly played by Andrew Keenan-Bolger. (Dude was awesome!) He entered dressed in colorful patched clothes, wearing a bike helmet and a cape. When he takes the helmet off he has very very messy blonde hair.
He made his clothes all by himself. Leaf belongs to a large family, with siblings with plant names like his, "Marigold, Pinecone, Landscape, and Paul."
He got third place in his school's spelling bee, but due to the winner and the runner up not being able to go, he went instead. He was such a goof, but a loveable one.
At one point, he fell off the bleachers and then after a moment of confused silence from the others, he announced that he fell.
Whenever he is given a word, he always responds with "Is that a word?" and then gets the definition. He says that he doesn't know how to spell the word, but then goes into a sort of a trance and spells the word.
His song is "I'm not that smart" because that's what his big family always tells him. But he realizes that he is smart, just... a bit easily distracted.
He places fifth, and is very happy with that.

Andrew Keenan-Bolger also played Logainne's father, and the transformation was astonishing. All that he did was slick down his hair and put on glasses, but it was amazing to watch him change characters.

I was glad that even though my two favorite spellers didn't win, neither of them was that upset at losing.

The character that was most upset about losing was Chip Tolentio, played by Justin Keyes. He was the champion last year, and is struggling with the fact that he has just discovered girls. Apparently Leaf's sister Marigold is very very attractive, and this is very distracting to Chip. He gets up and goes over to the microphone reluctantly... holding his number down low to hide his reaction to Marigold.
Because of his distraction, he misspells and is the second person eliminated from the Bee.

Later on, during snack time he is reduced to working at the bake sale (which seems to constitute carrying a box full of candy around). He wanders the audience, hawking his goods, before deciding to just give them away, by throwing candy and treats out into the audience during his song Chip's Lament. During which point, I nearly got hit with a package of gummy bears.

It was made even funnier that he was a sore loser because he was dressed as a boy scout.

Logainne Schwartzangrubenierre has a long name. She is the youngest contestant, and the most outspoken about various and assorted political issues. Her part must be constantly changing through the years for some of her jokes to make sense. The actress did a good job, but personally I'm not that interested in political humor. She has a lot of pressure put on her by her fathers and she sort of cracked under it.
When she lost, it was because she spelled the word "vug" wrong, by making it too complicated. She came in third and was devastated. I felt bad for her. Accordingly, her song is called "Woe is me"

Olive Ostrovsky, played by Vanessa Ray, is a quiet girl. Her mother is in India, her father works all the time, and her best friend is her dictionary. She is a good speller because she spends so much time reading the dictionary. Vanessa Ray had a very good voice (And she was very nice when I met her after the show for a few minutes) on her two solos, "My friend the dictionary" and "The I love you song".
During the I love you song, her mother, played by Roberta Duchak and her father, played by Kevin Smith Kirkwood, appear in her imagination. Her parents always say that they love her, but why aren't they here?

She spent the whole of the Bee patiently and hopefully waiting that her father would show up. She even saved a set for him, but he didn't make it.
There is slight drama around her because she didn't know about the entrance fee of twenty-five dollars, and her father isn't there to pay it.
It was also funny when it was announced what school Olive went to: The Wisconsin Conservatory of Life-Long-Learning, which is a real school just down the street from where I live. I sort of wonder why they picked that school out of all of the other ones. Maybe they just liked the name.

The final contestant is William Barfee, played by Eric Roediger. He is such a nerd, with the thick glasses and nerdy hair cut. He also speaks in a nerdy, congested sort of voice.
He also has difficulty breathing. At one point, he announces that he has gone through his whole life only being able to breathe out of one nostril. His last name is constantly pronounced wrong, as Barf-y but he says that it's pronounced Bar-fey, rhymes with parfait.
He also has a unique way of spelling... he uses his magic foot to spell out the words on the ground, and then he reads them off. This nearly leads to disaster when Logainne's father decides to even the odds by spilling coke on the floor to make the floor sticky. But he perseveres to spell the word correctly.

Will and Olive have a friendship and maybe even a sort of crush growing throughout the show. They sing a sort of duet, or maybe it's sung in counter-point, called "Second", as the two of them vie for first place. Neither of them wants to be in second place.

But then, it's very sweet, because Olive misspells. The only way that the competition will end is if Will spells his word correctly. If he misspells, then Olive gets another chance.
Will knows how to spell his word, but he hesitates, looking over at Olive, who's nearly in tears. But she tells him that it's okay.

But then Mr Panch announces that there is a second place prize... as he digs in his wallet... a twenty-five dollar cash prize to the runner up. The runner up will also be the substitute if for some reason the winner can't go to the nationals.
Olive is happy, she rushes over to Ms Peretti and is able to pay her entrance fee.

At the end of the show, each of the characters says what will happen to them. Mr Panch has fallen for Ms Peretti, and courts her for two years before she takes out a restraining order against him.
Ms Peretti, on the other hand, moves away to a small country where she becomes the leading real estate agent there.
Mitch Mahoney liked working at the spelling bee so much that he made it his full time job, and he's still there, giving hugs and juice boxes to those eliminated from the Bee.
Chip comes to terms with going through puberty and says that he now enjoys being attracted to girls.
Marcy Park continued to not exceed expectations, and wrote a book called "Not Exceeding Expectations" which did not exceed expectations.
Leaf has cats.
Logainne goes on to win the 31st Annual Putnam County Spelling bee - in the last year that she is eligible to do so. Then she goes on to become secretary of education.
William grows up to be surprisingly handsome. He removes his glasses and speaks in a normal adult male voice. Once again, the transformation was astonishing, and all that he did was take off his glasses. He goes on to become a psychiatrist and a podiatrist.
Olive goes on to become more confident and becomes a wife and a mother as well as running her own radio talk show, where every year she interviews the runner up to the spelling bee.

After the show, some of the cast remained on stage to announce that they would be collecting for Broadway Cares, and they listed off some of the organizations that they were collecting for, and that some of the cast would be out in the lobby collecting.
That's where I sort of met Vanessa Ray, because I put a few dollars into her jar, and I told her that it was a good show.
Mitch was also standing out in the lobby, giving hugs to anyone who donated.

I sort of went into this show "blind" in that all I knew about it was that it was about a spelling bee, and that it was very funny.
Yup. It's about a spelling bee, and it is very funny.