Are Critics Buzzing About William Finn's Spelling Bee at Second Stage?

Amid rumors of a possible Broadway transfer, William Finn's new musical The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, which features a book by Rachel Sheinkin, opened on February 7 at Second Stage Theatre. Did critics think everything onstage spelled a H-I-T?

Here is a sampling of what they had to say:

Eric Grode in his Broadway.com Review: "The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee may be William Finn's least ambitious musical. It may also be his best. It's a slightly wicked, profoundly embracing reminder that heartbreak or joy or a new friend can be just a consonant away, and I have a hard time believing that anyone wouldn't love this show… The overall caliber of onstage talent is alarmingly high--[Jesse Tyler] Ferguson, [Deborah S.] Craig and the sparkling [Celia] Keenan-Bolger are just a few of the standouts--and they have a intelligent, surprising and very sweet piece to work with."

Charles Isherwood of The New York Times: "Can you spell irresistable? Drat! I mean, irresistible? Yea or nay, that's precisely the word for The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, the lovably inconsequential, entirely adorable new musical that opened Off Broadway… Spelling Bee marks a heartening return to the spotlight for William Finn, the gifted lyricist and composer best known for Falsettos. His nimble, upbeat score provides the emotional underpinning for Rachel Sheinkin's more satirical--indeed often riotously funny--book. The director, James Lapine, Mr. Finn's collaborator on Falsettos, is also in impeccable form."

Howard Kissel of The New York Daily News: "Anyone who saw the documentary Spellbound, about the national spelling bee, knows how much wrenching drama there can be in these contests. But Finn, who did the music and lyrics, and Rachel Sheinkin, who wrote the book, have made this Bee one long skit… Like the writing, most of the performances are forced. Two exceptions are Deborah Craig, as an Asian-American tired of over-achieving, and Celia Keenan-Bolger, who injects real humanity into a girl who is too poor to afford the entry fee. Otherwise, Bee is a cartoon full of strained humor. Given the possibilities of the subject, it's irritatingly sophomoric."

David Rooney of Variety: "One of the trickiest words in the climactic competition face-off of The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee is weltanschauung, defined here by a finalist as 'one's personal perspective, your philosophy, the way you look at the world.' Used in a sentence, as the rules of the bee allow, it might be: The weltanschauung revealed in composer-lyricist William Finn and book writer Rachel Sheinkin's winsome and winning new musical is so generously warm-hearted, only the most bitter misanthrope could resist its charms. Heart is by no means the only thing this delightful character-driven show has going for it. Sure, it's eccentrically humanistic and idiosyncratically witty… But it's also perhaps Finn's most overtly comedic musical and probably his most widely accessible."

Michael Kuchwara of The Associated Press: "How do you spell hit? Quite simple, really. The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. This ingratiating, which opened Monday at off-Broadway's Second Stage Theatre, has a lot of what has been missing from many new musicals in the last several years--heart. [Finn's] music is quirky, a delightful mixture of pop and theatrical melodies with smart, savvy lyrics. Spelling Bee has built-in suspense, just from the nature of the story, as one by one, contestants are eliminated. Sheinkin's book, based on another version of the show by Rebecca Feldman, plays this up for maximum impact. Director James Lapine keeps the intermissionless show moving swiftly."

Linda Winer of Newsday: "If grown-ups pretending to be children creep you out, audience participation makes you squirm and contests seem too cheesy to use as theater, you've got good taste. On the other hand, good taste has delightfully little to do with The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, the slim but endearingly deranged spelling-bee spoof that opened last night… Where Finn's work tends to make us laugh to keep from sobbing, this 105-minute chamber piece has fizzier trifles and Rachel Sheinkin's smartly goofy book on its twisted little mind. The production, directed with a light hand and a great heart by Finn-specialist James Lapine, never loses touch with the anxiety communicated so effectively by Spellbound, the recent documentary about children and spelling bees. Despite using four presumably voluntary audience members in the contest, however, the musical has less in common with reality than with Smile, the terrific movie and terrible musical satire of beauty pageants."