“Spelling Bee” at the C-i-v-i-c

By Katelyn White
Western Herald

Oh middle school; the angst, the drama — puberty. It was a set of years many would rather forget, however, The Kalamazoo Civic Theater is putting a funny spin on the awkward years.

The Kalamazoo Civic Theater is presenting “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee” from Jan. 15 through Jan. 30, in the Parish Theater located at 426 S. Park St.

The Kalamazoo Civic’s production of The “25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee” is the first locally produced production of the show. This Tony Award-winning musical is not just about the spelling, but also about characters most people can relate to.

“Our Civic actors are in their 20’s, so they aren’t yet totally removed from middle school angst,” said Ben Zylman, director of Marketing and Development at the Kalamazoo Civic.

“There lies the challenge and they’ve created these multifaceted, yet honest characters.”

The show focuses on six youngsters trying to spell their way into history, and their grown-up counterparts who seem to have barely changed since their own middle school days. The kids, all awkward and pubescent, are competing for the championship in a big-time spelling bee.

This heartwarming show teaches people that sometimes losing isn’t a bad thing, and it certainly doesn’t make you a loser. And winning isn’t everything, as shown by the six quirky characters.

“The wonderful thing about this show is each character is given their own wonderful moment in sun,” Zylman said. “Our actors are having a wonderful time creating their characters.”

“The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee” is a relatively new show to Broadway stages, and especially local playhouses. It wasn’t even a musical at all when it started.

Originally performed by a group of improvisational actors called The Farm, by word of mouth its popularity grew, and one of the cast members knew a Broadway playwright. It was a whirlwind situation and in 2005 they were selling out their productions.

The show ended up winning two Tony Awards the same year.

The unique aspect of this show, not only that it is a musical, is that it involves audience participation. Every night is a new show, and the Kalamazoo Civic actors have been doing a lot of improvisational work to prepare. Every night, four new audience members are picked to play roles.

For those interested, there will be tables set up in the lobby at the theater for people to sign up as possible participants. There is a series of informal questions one must answer if they’re willing to participate. The four audience members are selected from the list of volunteers at random and announced at the show.

“It’s fun. It is a fun show, and yet there are moments that open up to opportunity. It’s a wonderful balance of humor and sentiment,” Zylman said. “We’ve all been there, wanting to be successful, wanting to win whatever the prize may be.”

This is a bit of a stray from traditional musicals that the Kalamazoo Civic has done in the past. However, the members at the theater know how popular this musical is, and that it has been successful everywhere its played. The staff members took a trip to Chicago to see the show and fell in love with it.

“It was a unanimous vote about what a perfect show it would be to produce at the Civic,” Zylman said. “Its contemporary, funny, charming and audiences love it.”

This offbeat and colorful musical is selling out fast, so Kalamazoo Civic staffers are recommending people buy their tickets as soon as possible. Tickets can be purchased through the Kalamazoo Civic box office at (269) 343-1313, or online at www.kazoocivic.com.

Students rush tickets are $10, based on availability before each performance, and need to be purchased in person at the box office.

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Posted by heraldstaff on Jan 13 2010. Filed under A & E. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry

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