Was it foresight or circumstance that led Bay Area Musicals to choose The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee for its season opener, coming just three days after the election? Whatever the electoral outcome had been, its upcoming production of Assassins would have been a queasy choice for the post-vote slot. As it is, Spelling Bee provides theatrical comfort food for audiences who may be in a shell-shocked state of blue.
Operating out of the Alcazar Theatre for its second season, BAM! and director-choreographer Matthew McCoy have given amiable life to the musical set in a place where life's challenges revolve around spelling words like "crepuscule" and avoiding spontaneous erections while doing so. Since its New York debut in 2005, the show has become popular around the world, with Rachel Sheinkin's dialogue being open to change. There is leeway for presenters to tailor some rejoinders to specific circumstances of each audience (more on that later), and apparently the provided script is freshened with updated references that avoid the easy laughs of anything too topical like, say, an election.
On its most basic level, Spelling Bee is about just that, a bunch of kids competitively stringing letters together, but their various under-construction personalities are revealed as the competition continues. Sometimes it's during their interaction with each other or arising from the words they have been given to spell. There are also moments when some kids go into individual reveries stemming from parental issues. But there's nothing too weighty, and matters usually conform to familiar and sometimes stereotypical patterns.
What is most needed from the cast of young adults playing the contestants is an ability to both let us perceive them as children and enjoy their company even when they are acting obnoxiously childish. The six "kids" in this production can all go to the head of the class for delivering the goods outlined above. Where a few demerits are in order comes in the vocalizing, with too many notes falling sharp or flat in ways that hinder our investment in the songs.
The songs are by William Finn, whose masterwork Falsettos is now back on Broadway, and while they contain clever lyrics, few melodies are more than mildly pleasant. The closest thing to a showstopper, as it was on Broadway, is "Magic Foot," in which a supercilious speller demarcates letters with fancy footwork that helps him visualize the word to be spelled. Nick Rodriguez captures the spirit of this likably unlikable character, and sells his big song with skill. So, too, does Catrina Manahan as an exhausted over-achiever in her song "I Speak Six Languages" that includes impressive demonstrations of various other talents.
David Glazer at first seems to be pushing too hard for goofiness as a child of hippies, but his commitment to this curious character becomes thoroughly ingratiating. Cecily Schmidt is sweet, too, as the lisping daughter with two fathers, but the flashback scenes with her overbearing dads are an unnecessary distraction. The same with a dirge-like ballad that the otherwise engaging Alexandria Ortega must deliver as a parentally starved youngster. Antonio Rodriguez III is good company as the perky incumbent champion, but his spotlight number "My Unfortunate Erection" is one of the cases in which compromised singing can take a toll.
There are also three adult characters on stage, if you don't count the four audience volunteers pulled on stage to play lightly ridiculed contestants who are among the first to be eliminated. They're not really an integral factor in the show, but it's an amusing device with no cringe factor. The fulltime adults include the contest organizer played with pageant-perkiness by Nicole Frydman and a delicately wound vice-principal played by Kirk Johnson, who deadpans increasingly absurd usages of words to be spelled. Lavale Davis has the right spirit for the discomfiting "comfort counselor" who's working off community service, but the character's edges aren't always sharp enough.
Spelling Bee is ultimately about the kids and about letting their freak flags fly. In the end, Bay Area Musicals is able to spell it out with confidence.
The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee will run through Dec. 3 at the Alcazar Theatre. Tickets are $35-$65. Call (415) 340-2207 or go to bamsf.org.