Six misfits win big

Talk about a pressure cooker.

Stress fills our lives, but it pales compared to the strain prepubescent competitors deal with in The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, now playing at the Mayfield Dinner Theatre.

This musical is a heady dose of life for six young misfits as they tread a razor-thin road to celebrity, a two-pronged sword where adventurers either savour a taste of glory or tumble into irrelevance.

While taking part in a spelling bee doesn't have the same fawning golden glow as a football championship, it passes on an extraordinarily important life lesson — winning is great, but it's also important to have fun along the way.

The strength of this endearing production, with music and lyrics by William Finn and book by Rachel Sheinkin, lies in the individual characters of the young spellers and their personal triumphs and back-stories.

It also helps that director Farren Timoteo has pulled together one of the strongest comedic casts in Edmonton.

These characters are socially ostracized kids that sit on the fringes. Ryan Parker plays the deliciously obnoxious William Barfée (pronounced Bar-fay), a nerd saddled with a name that invites bad jokes. He has a peanut allergy, wears big glasses and speaks in squeaky nasal tones.

Then there's the spunky Loggaine Schwartzandgruenieere (Kristi Gunther-Hanson), a kid that is blessed with two gay dads and is head of her school's gay-straight alliance. Afflicted with a lisp, she gets the word “cystitis.'

Asian prodigy Marcy Park (Kimmy Choi) is the pouty perfectionist who sleeps three hours a night, speaks six languages, plays piano and violin and twirls the baton. Pushed to the extreme, this 10-year old finally gets a revelation from Jesus when asked to spell “camouflage” and makes a decision that sets her free.

The quieter, mouse-like Olive Ostrovsky is a neglected kid whose father works late hours and her mother is at an ashram in India. Neither parent is at the spelling bee. Feeling alone, she sings the I Love You song to them, a poignant moment that is heartbreakingly sad.

Then there's Boy Scout Chip Tolentino (Sheldon Elter), last year's reigning champ, who blows his chances when distracted by a girl, he develops an erection and is asked to spell “tittup.”

And finally there's the delightfully goofy but huggable Leaf Coneyybear (Andrew MacDonald-Smith), a not-so-smart kid who landed a slot in the competition by default.

The musical starts off with the chipper, pony-tailed Rona Lisa Peretti (Bridget Ryan), a former champ that now energetically runs the show. And Julien Arnold's Mr. Panch as the word caller, is the perfect tweedy vice-principal.

In addition, the show's creators also invite four audience members to participate as spellers. Ryan's Ms. Peretti is the seamless hostess welcoming them on stage with a few wicked bits of verve and humour.

The six actors playing children's roles do more than imitate mannerisms. They dig deep and in the kids' occasional twitchy behaviour reveal real soul. We revel in their small personal triumphs, such as connecting with the opposite sex and finding self-esteem.

Carmon Arlett's set design of a mock school gym complete with bleachers, basketballs and tacked up notices beautifully creates the perfect antiseptic environment.

The bottom line is that it's easy to relate to these characters in a show that is packed with entertaining charm and humour.