Spelling Bee - at Harvard?

Another great and completely fun Harvard student production - "The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee" - done in a faux middle-school gym, with a really fun and sharp cast of 10 plus four befuddled audience "volunteers." The show obviously inspired by such films as Spellbound and built on a lot of improvisation, as we watch the six young contestants (plus the volunteers, not all young) pass through the rounds and in the process, through some energetic numbers and snappish dialog, reveal who they are, where they've come from, and in the end where they're going. You can kind of predict the types: the nerdy brainiac, the driven overachiever, the girl who's pushed by needy parents, the girl who's ignored by her parents, the kid who's surprised he's even there because he thinks he's not smart, and so on. But you can't predict what will happen to each over the course of the 90-minute no-intermission show. Our friend the delightful Susanna Wolk gives a great performance as a nerdy but politically energetic kid with a comical lisp and a superabundance of energy - go, Susanna! Also have to shout out to the showstopping # from MG Presioso, "chimerical," wishing her parents would pay attention to her and love her; to Justin Pereira's William Barfee and the broadly comical # about his "magic foot" (replete with some pretty good tapdancing), and the beautiful voice of Elizabeth Leimkuhler as an ex bee queen; the direction of this very challenging show (by Alex Willis) was superb, keeping it clear and quick and at various times witty, touching, troubling. Show's a lot of fun, and if I ever get to see it again, I will volunteer. (Sorry, guys - I am using spell-check.)