The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee
William Finn (Music & Lyrics); Rachel Sheinkin (Book)
Conceived by Rebecca Feldman; Additional Material by Jay Reiss
Foothill Music Theatre
Maybe few people still have a dictionary anywhere near their desk or on their home’s bookshelf. Maybe nearly everyone now relies on Gmail, MSWord, Google search, or AI to correct our misspellings. But for some reason, over 10 million students still participate each year in the Scripps National Spelling Bees in tens of thousand schools across the country, and another near 10 million tune in to watch the finals in D.C. each spring.
Further evidence of the Bees’ continued draw is the twenty-plus year popularity on stages large and small across America of the hilariously touching and lesson-rich The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. This William Finn and Rachel Sheinkin musical — originally conceived by Rebecca Feldman and with additional material by Jay Reiss — uses the framework of a local, spelling contest of assorted quirky kids to remind us that winning is wonderful but comes in second place to friendship, that being seen as weird can actually be pretty OK, and that being true to oneself in the end brings the biggest reward.
Foothill Music Theatre welcomes Putnam County’s whiz kid finalists to a spell-off full of F-U-N and H-E-A-R-T. While The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee may not make many lists for one of the greats of twentieth-century musicals, there is much in the script and music to elicit a fully enjoyable and entertaining evening, especially when put in the hands of this enthusiastic, energized cast of Foothill Music Theatre.
For my full review, continue to Talkin’Broadway.
Rating: 4 E
The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee continues through March 15, 2026, in a one-hour, forty-five-minute (no intermission) production by Foothill Music Theatre at the Lohman Theatre, 12345 El Monte Road, Los Altos Hills, CA. Tickets are available at https://foothill.edu/theatre/spelling-bee.html.
Photo Credits: David Allen
