History Theatre / TheTwentyFifthAnnualPutnamCountySpellingBee

* VagueAge: It's never specified how old the kids are, probably because [[DawsonCasting they're all played by adults anyway]]. Chip, Olive, and William are all old enough to be interested in the opposite sex, Logainne is younger than the others, and that's all we know.

** RocksFallEveryoneDies: An audience member that gets too far will get a sudden bell ring ''in the middle of a word'', regardless of whether they were spelling it right.

* IncrediblyLongNote: Logainne finishes "Woe Is Me" with one.

* LoadsAndLoadsOfRoles: Every member of the cast doubles.
** Especially the actor playing Mitch.
** Traditionally, the double-casting is:
*** Rona - Olive's mother
*** Mitch - Olive's Father, Dan/Logainne's Father
*** William - Leaf's father
*** Leaf - Carl/Logainne's [[HasTwoMommies other]] father
*** Logainne - Leaf's mother
*** Marcy - Leaf's sister, usually Brook.
*** Chip - one of Leaf's siblings, [[spoiler:Jesus]]
*** Olive - one of Leaf's siblings

* MoodWhiplash: From "The I Love You Song", Olive's mother breaks the somber, beautiful tone of the piece with the line "if you feel my gloom, blame it on me. Blame it on your daddily and mammily, because depression runs in our family", which usually garners a few laughs from the audience.

* PuttingOnMyThinkingCap: Barfée's "magic foot" that he uses to spell. It gets a whole song.
** [[spoiler: Then Logainne's father attempts to ''sabotage'' the foot by spilling something all over the floor (in between contestants which is why the organizers don't see him do it) so Barfée can't use it to spell. This throws Barfée off for a minute, but he recovers and manages to get his word right ''anyway''!]]
* RagingStiffie:
** Chip gets a whole song about one.
--->'''Chip:''' Because my stiffy has [[spoiler:ruined my spelling!]]

* SchrodingersGun: The main use for {{Perfectly Cromulent Word}}s. Certain words given to audience members are declared correct/incorrect regardless of the actual spelling provided.
** Since the audience members ''can't'' be allowed to win the bee since it would ruin the plot of the story, this is justified.

* SweaterGirl:
** Marigold Coneybear is often one[[note]] Although, because Marigold is an audience member chosen by the actors, this is not always her defining characteristic.[[/note]]
--->'''Chip:''' Hey, Leaf, is that your sister in the fourth row wearing the fuzzy sweater?

** Marigold Coneybear is often one[[note: Although, because Marigold is an audience member chosen by the actors, this is not always her defining characteristic.]]

** Marigold Coneybear is often one[[note: ** Although, because Marigold is an audience member chosen by the actors, this is not always her defining characteristic.]]

-->'''Chip:''' Because my stiffy has [[spoiler:ruined my spelling!]]

** Marigold Coneybear is often one
-->'''Chip:''' Hey, Leaf, is that your sister in the fourth row wearing the fuzzy sweater?
** Note that because Marigold is an audience member chosen by the actors, this is not always her defining characteristic.

* RagingStiffie: A whole song about one.

* SweaterGirl: Marigold Coneybear

* {{It Is Pronounced Tro-PAY}}: William Barfée (Bar-FAY)

* PositiveDiscrimination: Averted, and averted ''very deliberately''. Logainne is the most notable case: she's the child of a ''gay couple'', but they (though mostly Carl) are portrayed as deeply flawed, to put it ''mildly'', like any heterosexual parents are capable of being. Marcy looks like she plays this trope straight, being an Asian portrayed as one of the best, but then [[spoiler: she throws the bee after advice from Jesus, deciding not to live up to expectations]]. Chip's aversion of the trope is a variable case depending on the production; because his last name is "Tolentino", Chip is sometimes played by a Hispanic actor. [[spoiler: And no, Chip doesn't win the bee either; he's eliminated when he's distracted by an erection he got from looking at an attractive girl, and because of his distraction he tries to back up and correct himself in the middle of a word, which is against the rules.]]

** [[spoiler:On being eliminated, Leaf does a reprise of his IAmSong, "I'm Not That Smart", which starts out sad but ends on a triumphant, because although he didn't win he's lasted longer than anybody expected and proved to himself that he ''is'' smart]].

* DarkReprise / TriumphantReprise: Apart from the first few audience members, one of these comes up nearly every time someone gets eliminated. [[spoiler:Leaf's reprise]] manages to be both, starting out dark and ending triumphant.
** [[spoiler: Logainne's is arguably the darkest, since she's the only one that is devastated by her elimination (aside from Chip, whose elimination is played for laughs). Her reprise doesn't end on a happy note. She leaves close to tears.]]

* [[GranolaGirl Granola Guy]]: Leaf
* [[HasTwoMommies Has Two Daddies]]: Logainne
* [[HomeschooledKids Homeschooled Kid]]: Leaf Coneybear.

* [[JewishAndNerdy Half-Jewish and Nerdy]]: Logainne

* [[SchrodingersGun Schrodinger's Gun]]: The main use for {{Perfectly Cromulent Word}}s. Certain words given to audience members are declared correct/incorrect regardless of the actual spelling provided.

-> ''At the 25th Annual''
-> ''We've memorized the manual''
-> ''About how to spell these words''
-> ''Words that require thought''
-> ''People think we're automatons''
-> ''But that is exactly what we're not''

!!!This musical contains examples of

-->Chip: Because my stiffy has [[spoiler:ruined my spelling!]]

-->'''Chip''': Hey, Leaf, is that your sister in the fourth row wearing the fuzzy sweater?

* WhereAreTheyNowEpilogue

''The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee'' is a musical about six misfit kids in a spelling bee and the three crazy adults in charge. The music was written by William Finn and the book was written by Rachel Sheinkin.

* [[spoiler:AbusiveParents]]: Implied in "The I Love You Song."
** Although depending on your interpretation, each speller has these to an extent.

* CutSong: "Why We Like Spelling" shows up on the main soundtrack but generally isn't present in performances.

* DawsonCasting: The adult actors play characters who are in elementary or middle school.

* HarpoDoesSomethingFunny: A few segments can be improvised, though often there are default lines that performers can fall back on. In particular, Panch is often played by an improvisational comic and is given a fair amount of leniency with how he deals with the spellers from the audience.

** [[JustifiedTrope Justified]], as the plot of this play cannot work properly unless the cast members are the ones to make it to the finals, so they had to come up with some pretext to eliminate the audience members eventually.

* PositiveDiscrimination: Averted, and averted ''very deliberately''. Logainne is the most notable case: she's the child of a ''gay couple'', but they are portrayed as deeply flawed, to put it ''mildly'', like any heterosexual parents are capable of being. Marcy looks like she plays this trope straight, being an Asian portrayed as one of the best, but then [[spoiler: she throws the bee after advice from Jesus, deciding not to live up to expectations]]. Chip's aversion of the trope is a variable case depending on the production; because his last name is "Tolentino", Chip is sometimes played by a Hispanic actor. [[spoiler: And no, Chip doesn't win the bee either; he's eliminated when he's distracted by an erection he got from looking at an attractive girl, and because of his distraction he tries to back up and correct himself in the middle of a word, which is against the rules.]]

* ButtMonkey: Pretty much all of the spellers. Including those from the audience. ''Especially'' those from the audience.

* LoadsAndLoadsOfRoles: Pretty much every member of the cast doubles.

** [[spoiler: Logainne's elimination could be seen as one, though it can vary between productions. She hilariously misspells a three letter word (vug)... but she doesn't laugh. Instead she begs America to still love her even though America hates losers. Some productions have her drag her feet off stage, but some make her leave in tears. She's the only character whose exist doesn't end on a happy note. ]]

* PerfectlyCromulentWord: At least one pretty much always gets thrown at an audience member to spell.

** Of course, since the audience members ''can't'' be allowed to win the bee since it would ruin the plot of the story, this is justified.

** Also, Logainne's Carl Dad puts a lot of pressure on her, causing her to {{angst}}.

* SubvertedRhymeEveryOccasion: Chip's Lament comes in one of two versions, depending on the intended audience of a given production; the one without the rude words mostly has new rhymes to suit, except right at the end where it uses the original rhyme scheme and a LastSecondWordSwap to give attentive listeners a chance to realise precisely what Chip's lamenting.