25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee

So I just discovered this and it's one of the awesomest things ever. "The I Love You Song" is one of the most heartbreaking numbers ever. It's even a little bit creepy-and that's a good thing. Of course, there's always the comedic staple "My Unforunate Erection", but IMO, "Pandemonium" doesn't get enough credit.

I love this musical so much. Probably because it was the first musical I saw that I really liked and it got me into musicals.

You know, this isn't my favorite musical, but I almost want to say now that "Chimerical. C-h-i-m-e-r-i-c-a-l. Highly unrealistic, wildly fanciful." are the saddest words in any musical. Almost. I still have my favorite sad musical moments that remain undefeated. But this is going right up there.

It just occurred to me who Logainne reminds me of: Rachel Berry.

Dude, someone made a topic for this and I wasn't informed? I really like this one. Someday I'll work myself up to writing a better description for the trope page.

I volunteered for the audience participation thing when I saw it, but didn't get picked. Totally knew how to spell the words people got, too. I think the non-trivial ones were "vigintillion", "oubliette", and "ptomaine".

The usual thing now seems to be to perform this without an intermission. While the play is short, I find the omission odd given that the script is clearly written to include one.

I'll be auditioning for it next week, if I'm able to work it in.

But oh joy, it's another one of those "every-male-is-a-tenor" shows.

Pet peeve, huh? Technically, there are only two male characters with significant singing parts who have likely finished puberty.

It kind of surprises me that you'd audition for the show, but good luck.

Well, friend on Facebook sent me an invite, and I'm not one to turn down an audition.

And yup. Pet peeve. Along with tenors being cast in bass/baritone roles.

edited 26th Jun '11 9:06:08 PM by Pannic

I totally feel ya on the pet peeve. Sometimes it seems like musical theater is just a big contest to see who can hit the highest note.

Anyhoo, I love this show. "I Speak Six Languages" is probably my favorite, but really, all of the songs have a habit of getting stuck in my head. I may be a dude, but I definitely identify with Rona in that sense. Just can't decide on a favorite moment...

I know that this is really designed to be a stage production, but sometimes I like to think about what a film adaptation would be like. Highlights include:

• Disney Acid Sequence in "The I Love You Song".
• The montage sequence preceding Leaf's elimination actually being done as a montage.
• [POINT THREE REMOVED BECAUSE IT WAS DUMB]
• I Speak Six Languages is split into two songs, one of which is put towards the beginning, and one kept exactly where it is now.
• Flashbacks in relevant locations.

edited 11th Aug '11 9:03:14 AM by PDown

I'd miss the fake slow motion during the montage.

Point three seems less of a "movie version" thing and more of a "script revision to fit shipping" thing.

The thing with "I Speak Six Languages" is not really medium-specific either, though I can kind of see why one would want to make that revision in general. Marcy seems to be the only speller where pretty much everything of major significance that happened to her occurred during her final round.

Does it bother anyone else that only one non-audience character's elimination song didn't get used on the soundtrack? It wasn't that much shorter than the other ones, was it?

Yeah, that did bother me.

And, TBH, I don't really ship the characters in question. ... I spent a few minutes trying to come up with a non-shipping explanation, and then I realized that I actually do ship those characters, so I'm biased. Nevermind.

I know Marcy's wasn't used, but on the soundtrack quite a few of them are there. There's Chip's "Pandemonium (reprise)" , Leaf's "I'm Not That Smart (reprise)", Logainne's "Woe Is Me (Reprise)" and Olive is eliminated during "Second".

As you can probably tell, most of them are reprises.

edited 11th Aug '11 10:32:45 AM by cheeseypoofs

I don't think his complaint was that none of them were there, it was that one of them wasn't there for no reason.

Oh. I need to read more.

I think it's because it's another reprise of Pandemonium.

Although Marcy getting eliminated= CMOF.

I say this play back at my college in April, and my gut ached for the entire weekend from laughing so hard. Great stuff- I hope to see it performed again sometime.

I don't know why speeding up The I Love You Song is so awesome, but it's awesome anyways.

If we're talking about within the production, I saw a video of that once and found it kind of annoying, personally. It seemed like they were screwing up the pace of the song because the singers weren't good enough to do it right.

No, I mean in Audacity. Like, speeding up a song so that the pitch raises and it sounds ridiculous.

Oh. Yeah, I was totally thinking of a different thing.

Random thought: If we're to assume that each language featured in "I Speak Six Languages" is one that she speaks, Marcy actually speaks seven languages, since English is a language.

edited 22nd Dec '11 8:28:49 PM by SomeName

"I speak six languages... though it's a bit debatable if I can even count..."