THE FLIGHT OF SPELLING BEE:
From Concept to Broadway

Photo: Cast from "The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee" touring production.

THE 25TH ANNUAL PUTNAM COUNTY SPELLING BEE started out with playwright Rebecca Friedman and a little improvisational comedy troupe called The Farm in New York, who had developed a show called C-R-E-P-U-S-C-U-L-E. When well-known New York playwright Wendy Wasserstein saw the play, she called another famous New York playwright, her friend William Finn (Elegies, Falsettoland, Falsettos, In Trousers, March of the Falsettos, A New Brain), suggesting that the concept would make a great musical. When Finn saw the show he agreed, and proceeded to develop the concept into a full-length play, enlisting the help of Rachel Sheinkin to write the book.

The Workshop

Musicals are expensive. Investors and producers must be found. For these reasons, every show on Broadway, especially a musical, no matter how big or how small, gets “workshopped” before it gets to the Great White Way.

Workshops vary in size and style. Some are almost full-scale productions done at well-equipped regional theaters such as the Barrington Stage Company (BSC), located in the Berkshire Hills of southwestern Massachusetts. These are referred to as “enhancement deals” and “out-of-town tryouts.” With an enhancement deal, an agreement is made to take the workshop outside of New York to a regional theater. That theater rehearses the show and presents it to the public for a limited engagement, thereby gaining all-important audience feedback.

Other workshops are produced in New York rehearsal halls using minimal sets, props, and costumes. They may involve major stars or unknowns. The creative team gets to see the show “on its feet,” and potential producers and investors are invited to view the results.

As in the case of SPELLING BEE, composers and authors (Finn and Sheinkin) often put together their own workshop stagings, sending out invitations to producers, casting agents and anyone else they think may be interested in the show. At BSC in the winter of 2004, Finn and Sheinkin fleshed out C-R-E-P-U-S-C-U-L-E into a tune-filled, wildly successful musical workshop, and gained the attention – and eventual involvement – of Broadway producer David Stone (Wicked). Public and critical reaction to the workshop was so overwhelmingly positive that BSC put the show on the theater’s summer schedule with a new title: THE 25TH ANNUAL PUTNAM COUNTY SPELLING BEE.

Composers, authors, writers, producers – whoever is responsible for the mounting of a workshop production – often use the workshop to build a show’s creative team, quite often starting with the director and choreographer. Aside from the artistic considerations, a team with distinguished credits can make fundraising easier. In many cases, writers, composers or directors have favorite colleagues who work with them on a regular basis. When the decision was made to move SPELLING BEE to New York, the creative team grew with the addition of Finn’s longtime collaborator and friend, James Lapine, as director. Additionally, workshop and summer run choreographer Dan Knechtges was retained as a member of the New York creative team, and the show headed to Manhattan.

Off-Broadway and Broadway

SPELLING BEE defied the usual slow pace of the readings and workshop process and began off-Broadway previews in January, 2005, opening at the Second Stage officially on February 7, 2005. Positive critical and audience response sped things along even faster; the run completely sold out in five days, necessitating an extension. It closed on March 20, 2005, but only because ecstatic word-of-mouth and critical excitement made a move to Broadway an absolute next step.

The endearing little show-that-could leapt to Broadway’s Circle in the Square Theatre, beginning with previews on April 15, 2005 and opening officially on May 2 – in time to qualify for the 2005 Tony Awards. It was nominated in six categories, winning Best Book and Best Featured Actor in a Musical.