THE 25TH ANNUAL PUTNAM COUNTY SPELLING BEE

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Music & Lyrics by WILLIAM FINN
Book by RACHEL SCHEINKIN
Conceived by REBECCA FELDMAN
Additional Material by JAY REISS

“Craving a musical comedy to sweep you up into the action and keep you
laughing all the way home? Then this Tony Award-winning story is the show for you. THE 25TH ANNUAL PUTNAM COUNTY SPELLING BEE is a hilarious and unlikely musical tale of six quirky competitors and three oddball adults and the championship of a lifetime. For each performance four audience volunteers will be recruited to participate on-stage as guest spellers! A delightful score and a cast of wacky but heartfelt characters make for one of the most memorable evenings of theatre. The word for this show: W-O-N-D-E-R-F-U-L!” 

Theatre Three playbill

Recently I had the pleasure of attending an off-Broadway production of: THE 25^TH ANNUAL PUTNAM COUNTY SPELLING BEE.

Tucked away on Main Street, Theatre Three is a not for profit next door to my financial advisor’s offices in Port Jefferson, who supplied 2 free tickets for TLW (The Little Woman) and me for this production, as well as their other clients.

The presentation was fun but the interesting thing was we kind of knew someone in the cast, who frankly was very talented and may have carried the show to some degree by his likeability, acting and good looks.

AS you know, there lies within the confines of The Wanna-Be-Bank & Truss Co., one Bow Tie Man, an omnipresent fixture at the wanna-be-bank, also known as Lenny. Bow Tie man has a younger brother, who is talented and came to the forefront in the production of ‘Spelling Bee’. I must say, TLW and I enjoyed his rendition of Leaf Coneybear. His name is Matthew Paredi, and I think someone should pursue a way to get this young man to acting school, where he belongs to continue his quest to become an actor. Maybe he has a rich relative or perhaps a older brother who works in a lending institution or wanna-be-bank lets say.

Matthew showed what passion is and what happens when real talent is given a chance: it shines brightly. In my opinion he was my favorite of the cast, but maybe I’m jaded, because I kind of know him, but he was very good and very talented!

Good luck Matthew, you have a fan here for life, but pursue your dream.