Back in August, 2015 I went to see a production of The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, presented as a Bravo Academy for the Performing Arts Summer Teen Contemporary Musical Theatre Intensive in Toronto. I had heard of it, but not of its composer and lyricist, William Finn, nor its book writer Rachel Sheinkin, nor of Rebecca Feldman, who wrote the original story. Meredith was studying and performing with the Bravo Academy, and assured me this was worth seeing. It certainly was. Among other things, it sparked a huge interest in Finn, and two of his other pieces, The Falsettos and A New Brain. His output is modest but original, to say the least.
Last night we saw a new production of Spelling Bee put on by the Victoria College Dramatic Arts Society at U of T. Originally they were going to present something different that fell through, so the cast and crew had 24 days to pull this together. It was superb! There was very little evidence that it came together under these circumstances. The performers were were fantastic channellers of their characters’ tortured personalities. They were also hilarious, and wonderful improvisers which was understandably necessary a few times!, This seemingly light spoof of our contest-crazed culture does seem to suggest that the whole thing might be character building for the contestants, or does it? In a pivotal scene, Marcy is given the word camouflage, to which she responds, “Jesus Christ, can’t you come up with a harder word than that.” Jesus Christ then appears on a scooter and delivers a brief deadpan shrug as far as the whole enterprise is concerned, and inspires Marcy to sabotage the game and take control of her own life.
Without going into too much detail (because I’m not capable of it, and I’m going to run out of room), I would say that one of Finn’s principal artistic devices is to build his songs around the characters’ distinct voices with exaggerated qualities. Anyone who has seen or heard Falsettos will be familiar with this approach. I’m not quite describing what I mean here, but I’m running out of room and steam.