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By Meagan Cunningham / Asst. Inscape Editor
By Meagan Cunningham / Asst. Inscape Editor
On Oct. 28, the Riverside City College’s theatre department put on the musical comedy, “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee.”
In the past the production has sold out on the Off Broadway Series and has won two Tony Awards.
The play is an exciting production with a wide cast, special effects, and funny jokes.
The play is ultimately about winning the spelling bee; however, because the adolescents are from different backgrounds the play transforms into a comedy about morals.
The diverse group of students ranges from a boy scout going though puberty, to a girl with homosexual parents.
The characters all have unique ways of winning the spelling bee.
One of the characters, William Barfee (Zach Hallet), spelled the word with his “magical foot,” while Logainne Schawrtzandgrubenierre (Haley Rubin) spells the word out on her arm.
In the play, the characters personalites were exphasized with comedic jokes and interesting gimmicks.
One of the most exciting scenes happened when Marcy Parks (Marilu Bustamante), an over achiever fluent in six languages got the word “camouflage.”
Marcy asked God could he give her a harder word, and from a thick cloud of smoke into a spotlight he appears.
After her conversation with God, Marcy realized that she doesn’t want the pressure of winning the competition and disqualifies herself.
A wild card that made the performance special was a surprise strobe light effect.
As a running joke, William “Barf-fee” was called to the microphone to take his turn, but on this turn he said very slowly “It’s Bar-Fay.”
The combination of a strobe light and the casts’ ability to move in slow motion emphasized the joke and added an element of surprise.
Another highlight of the show was Chip Tolentino (Miguel Castellano), a boy scout going through the excitement of puberty.
During Chips’ comedic solo about the hormones raging through his body, he threw candy into the audience which really got the crowd excited.
RCC’s theatre department director, Jodi Julian kept the excitement and tradition of the musical.
In the beginning people were selected from lobby activities and then briefly included in the play.
When one volunteer was asked to spell “Mexican,” the other spellers busted into a musical outrage because they were all given harder words; which was very entertaining.
The music was also a great addition to the show.
The musical play featured a live orchestra which made the play extremely enjoyable.
Mitch Mahoney (Loren Smith), a convict serving his time from his probation at the spelling bee gave the song “Pandemonium” energy and excitement with his strong vocals.
Through RCC’s Theatre Department, “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee” was a great production.
The cast was diverse and energetic.
The music was entertaining and the special effects kept the audience intrigued.
Overall the diverse cast, funny jokes and special effects made it a great night to attend RCC’s version of the famous musical.
