Theatre Aspen Spells It Out For You
July 1st, 2009 at 12:35pm Michael Conniff 2
Okay, I’m a convert to Theatre Aspen. At the end of the day—at the end of the night—if it ain’t on the page it ain’t on the stage, but if it ain’t on the stage you’ve got bupkus.
Of course, Theatre Aspen has its own page to turn: Paige Price, the singer-actor-labor official-artistic director now responsible for the pages that end up under the tent on the stage on the edge of Rio Grande Park. First recruited as a performer to Theatre Aspen by former bossman David McClendon, she has not only raised expectations for a regional-caliber troupe but has begun to deliver this season with “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee,” a raucous and occasionally raunchy musical comedy now well underway under the tent and running through August.
Directed and choreographed by Mark Martino, the show is both a scream and a stitch, with a cast—Robin Lee Gallo, Joan Hess, Jonathan Kay, Jeff Leatherwood, Alison Luff, Beth Malone, Jordan Nichols, Jody Reynard, and Jamison Stern—so uniformly outstanding that one hesitates to sing the praises anyone’s singing and/or acting at the expense of the others. Adding to the rumpus room effect is the participation of volunteers both hapless and happy. We went to a preview showing that brought Don Chaney of KSNO and Erin Johnson of The Aspen Club and Spa up on stage along with two others. The constant references to local lore—like the closing of Zele—kept the audience bubbling with inside jokes.
Jamison Stern is hilariously stellar as the addled assistant principal and pervert: he and Joan Hess as the Bee moderator are always on the verge of stealing the show, with Hess’s gee-whiz bee performance—how she loves to spell!—forming the emotional heart of a play that would otherwise drown in farce. Jody Reynard, a fine and versatile actor, gets to show off his range to great effect as an ex-con, a gay father, and an egghead father.
On top of all that talent, consider the crazy “kids,” the actors dressed up as hormonal adolescents so nerdy that can’t help but be beloved at the “Bee.” Jonathan Kay, sweaty and endearing and sputteringly funny, spells with his foot—and his whole asymmetrical body—while Jeff Leatherwood plays a stoked space cadet somehow possessed by the rogue speller within to laugh-out-loud funny effect. The considerable skills of Jordan Nichols, meanwhile, are on display as a Boy Scout with a monster erection, with all the conviction of memory too awkward to submit to Method. All the performances go over the top without the actors losing the basic humanity that keeps “Bee” grounded despite the odds.
As for the “girls,” they are simply marvelous—marvelously funny and adorable. Robin Lee Gallo puts the fun back in bonkers with an athletic, kick-ass, stone-cold angry performance that puts her at about 12 years old. Alison Luff is a fuzzy crowd-pleaser who can make her pain visible in a gesture—and her girlish epiphany is worth the wait. Beth Malone, meanwhile, always pops up from the bleachers with a soul grasping for the immortality that only an impossible word spelled correctly can confer.
How would I spell “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee” at Theatre Aspen? I’d do it in a single word: H-I-T.
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