The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee
Music & Lyrics by
William Finn
Book by
Rachel Sheinkin
Conceived by
Rebecca Feldman
Director
Graham Hubbard
Location
The Linbury Studio Theatre
Dates
Honeycomb cast
Thursday 12 June at 7:15pm
Monday 16 June at 2:15pm
Wednesday 18 June at 2:15pm
Nectar cast
Friday 13 June at 7:15pm
Monday 16 June at 7:15pm
Thursday 19 June at 2:15pm
Hive cast
Saturday 14 June at 2:15pm
Tuesday 17 June at 7:15pm
Wednesday 18 June at 7:15pm
Buzz cast
Saturday 14 June at 7:15pm
Tuesday 17 June at 2:15pm
Thursday 19 June at 7:15pm
About the show
LAMDA presents the next wave of musical theatre talent in a showdown like no other. Winning is important, but growing up is the real challenge.
Join six quirky misfits at The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee – and maybe a few audience members – as they compete for spelling glory in this heartfelt and hilarious Tony Award-winning smash-hit.
Packed with infectious songs, witty one-liners and spellbinding surprises, this fast-paced, feel-good show is a joyous celebration of embracing who you really are.
The mics are on, the buzzer is primed, and the wordsmiths are waiting...
Ready to spell F-U-N?
This amateur production is presented by arrangement with Music Theatre International. All authorised performance materials are also supplied by MTI www.mtishows.co.uk
Graham trained at LAMDA (Evelyn Laye Award) and was an actor for fourteen years working extensively in regional/West End theatre, television and film with directors such as Kenneth Branagh, Matthew Warchus, Gregory Doran, John Caird and John Doyle. He then moved into directing and writing.
Graham was Associate Director on Sweeney Todd (West End/Broadway), Mack and Mabel (Criterion), The Sound of Music (London Palladium), Priscilla, Queen of the Desert (Palace).
Graham now focuses on his own creative projects. His productions range from Shakespeare, through Coward and Brecht to Musical Theatre. As Artistic Director for New Rep Theatre, he was nominated for the Peter Brook Award, 2012, for his newly scored actor/musician production of The Caucasian Chalk Circle. He enjoys supporting and developing new writing and was nominated Best Director 2013, by Broadway World for his work on the world premiere of Carol Vine’s The Spring Tide. His stage adaptation of Julia Donaldson’s children’s book What The Ladybird Heard, had a successful run in the West End in 2017 and is currently on an international tour.
Graham regularly directs at many of the top drama schools in the UK (CSSD, Arts Ed, LIPA, BSA, Guildford Conservatoire, LSMT) and is artistic director for the Salvation Army’s annual charity concert at the Royal Albert Hall.
He has recently completed writing a musical The Colonel’s Lady (based on a short story by Somerset Maugham) and is looking forward to adapting a South African novel, Buckingham Palace, District Sixwhich covers three decades of the apartheid years, for the stage.
A playwright, lyricist and Tony Award winning librettist for musical theater, Rachel is often drawn to hybrid forms and experimental collaborations. Her work has appeared on and off Broadway, regionally and internationally, including most prominently in The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, with a score by William Finn, for which she received Tony and Drama Desk Awards for Book of a Musical.
Other productions include Striking 12, a hybrid rock concert/musical written with and for the band GrooveLily (Lucille Lortel nomination for Outstanding Off-Broadway Musical); Sleeping Beauty Wakes, originally performed in both ASL and English in collaboration with Deaf West Theatre (LA Ovation Award for World Premiere Musical); book and lyrics for Blood Drive with music by fellow GMTWP faculty member, Joel Derfner (Bridewell Theater, London) and for Serenade with music by Nils Olaf Dolven (Jaradoa, NYC). New musical works in progress include (working titles) The River to the Fjord with music by Nils Olaf Dolven and An Invisible Drunk in the Suburbs with music by Tisch Arts Professor Mel Marvin. In 2024, Spelling Bee featured in the Broadway Center Stage series at the Kennedy Center.
Rachel’s writing has been supported with residencies, grants, and fellowships from, among others: MacDowell, VCCA, Manhattan Theatre Club, The National Alliance for Musical Theatre, The Eugene O’Neill National Music Theater Conference, Goodspeed Opera House, and The Baryshnikov Arts Foundation; and at venues including Second Stage Theater; Barrington Stage Co; The Old Globe; TheatreWorks, Palo Alto; Center Theatre Group, LA; The Guthrie Theater, La Jolla Playhouse, Clubbed Thumb, and McCarter Theatre Center.
A member of Dramatists Guild, Rachel currently serves on The American Theatre Wing’s Tony Nominating Committee. As a teacher, she loves encouraging new waves of artists to explore both craft and voice, stretching their own boundaries and that of the form. She also enjoys working as a dramaturg and mentor for earlier career writers, which she has done most recently for Clubbed Thumb, Toronto’s Musical Stage Company, and independently. Rachel is a graduate of Tisch GMTW’s Cycle 10, and previously received a BA from Brown University and an MFA in playwriting from Yale School of Drama, where she has also taught classes in libretto writing for musical theater.
William Finn was the writer and composer of Falsettos, for which he received two Tony Awards, Best Book of a Musical (with James Lapine) and Best Original Score. He also wrote and composed In Trousers, March of the Falsettos and Falsettoland (Outer Critics Circle Award for Best Musical, two Los Angeles Drama Critics Awards, two Drama Desk Awards, the Lucille Lortel Award and Guggenheim Fellowship in Playwriting).
Mr. Finn wrote the lyrics to Graciela Daniele’s Tango Apasionado (music by the great Astor Piazzolla) and, with Michael Starobin, the music to Lapine’s version of The Winter’s Tale. His musical Romance in Hard Times was presented at The Public Theater. He also wrote Painting You for Love’s Fire, a piece commissioned and performed by the Acting Company, based on Shakepeare’s sonnets.
For television, Mr. Finn provided the music and lyrics for the Ace Award-winning HBO cartoon Ira Sleeps Over, Tom Thumb and Thumbelina, Pokey Little Puppy’s First Christmasand, with Ellen Fitzhugh, two Brave Little Toaster cartoons. Mr. Finn wrote for Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar and The New Yorker. A graduate of Williams College, where he was awarded the Hutchinson Fellowship for Musical Composition, Finn taught a weekly master class at the NYU Tisch Graduate Program in Musical Theatre Writing.
His other projects included Elegies, A Song Cycle (Lincoln Center), The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, which had a three-year run on Broadway and has been produced nationally and all over the world, and Little Miss Sunshine with James Lapine. He also served as the Artistic Head of the Musical Theatre Lab at the Barrington Stage Company in Pittsfield, Massachusetts.
This musical project is in a partnership and design collaboration with the Beijing Institute of Fashion Technology (BIFT).
Booking
Booking opens soon.
Once you have booked a ticket, you will receive an email confirmation. Read up on our latest audience guidelines here.
Members of the industry: secure your complimentary seat by emailing the Box Office on [email protected]
Pricing and concessions
Tickets cost £14, but we have £7 concessions tickets available to Hammersmith & Fulham residents, schools, students, or people who are over 65, under 18 or are on Job Seeker's Allowance. You'll just need to provide proof of your eligibility when you collect your tickets at the Box Office. We offer a complimentary ticket for carers, to book please call the box office on 020 8834 0500. If you belong to our Pathways Programme or work with any of our Pathways Partners you are entitled to complimentary tickets. Please contact the box office to book.
Accessibility
If you have any additional requirements, you would like us to be aware of, please contact box office on 020 8834 0500.
Booking your tickets
Book your tickets online or by calling our box office on 020 8834 0500.
Industry booking
If you're a member of the industry, please email [email protected] to book your tickets.
Group tickets
We're pleased to offer discounted tickets to groups of 10+ people. Standard tickets are discounted to £9 per person, while under 18's tickets are discounted to £5 per person. To book, please contact [email protected]
E-Tickets
There is no need to collect tickets. You will be send an E-Ticket via email which you can present on arrival.
Refunds
Unfortunately, all tickets are non-refundable.
Creative Team
* LAMDA staff member or visiting artist
** Original Broadway Creative Team
Originally Directed on Broadway by
James Lapine**
Additional Material by
Jay Reiss**
Director
Graham Hubbard*
Designer
Lizzy Leech*
Producer
Rebecca Lyle*
Assistant Producer
Bobby Harding*
Costume Supervisor
Katie Kelson*
Lighting Designer
Jake Mawhinney*
Sound Designer
Chris Drohan*
Voice Director
Bee Menabney*
Musical Director
Ryan Murphy*
Choreographer
Nicola Mac*
Singing Support
Rosie Williamson*
Assistant Musical Director
Ben Papworth*
Assistant Directors
Rebeca dos Anjos
Tara Oppen
Cast
In alphabetical order
Rona Lisa Perretti
Eloise Earnshaw
Olive Ostrovsky
Marni Granek
Dani Schwartz / Jesus / Olive’s Mom
Megan Greenwood
Vice-Principal Douglas Panch / Olive’s Dad
William Harvey
Logainne Schwartandgrubeniere
Ava Hincks
Marge (1st Company) / Carla Grubinierre (2nd Company)
Annabelle Situpe Jessop
Marcy Park
Megan Peck
Chip
Aaron Reyes-Bordado
William Barfee
George Rohan
Leaf Coneybear
Chenxi Zhang
Olive Ostrovsky
Laura Bercero
Rona Lisa Perretti
Issey Dodd
Dani Schwartz / Jesus / Olive’s Mom
Megan Greenwood
Vice-Principal Douglas Panch / Olive’s Dad
William Harvey
Logainne Schwartandgrubeniere
Sara Al Hashimi
Marge (1st Company) / Carla Grubinierre (2nd Company)
Maria Jaszewska
Marcy Park
Neelam Rajni
Chip
Aaron Reyes-Bordado
William Barfee
George Rohan
Leaf Coneybear
Holly Sinclair
Rona Lisa Perretti
Grace Browning
Leaf Coneybear
Yu-Ting Chen
Dani Schwartz / Jesus / Olive’s Mom
Megan Greenwood
Vice-Principal Douglas Panch / Olive’s Dad
William Harvey
Olive Ostrovsky
Phoebe Kyriakopoulos
Chip
Aaron Reyes-Bordado
William Barfee
George Rohan
Marge (1st Company) / Carla Grubinierre (2nd Company)
Madeline Wasson
Logainne Schwartandgrubeniere
Charlotte Webb
Marcy Park
Hannah West
Rona Lisa Perretti
Vittoria Conforti
Olive Ostrovsky
Annabella Dawkins
Leaf Coneybear
Tara Farquhar
Dani Schwartz / Jesus / Olive’s Mom
Megan Greenwood
Vice-Principal Douglas Panch / Olive’s Dad
William Harvey
Logainne Schwartandgrubeniere
Jessica Tony Jane
Chip
Aaron Reyes-Bordado
William Barfee
George Rohan
Marge (1st Company) / Carla Grubinierre (2nd Company)
Gracie Tabrar
Marcy Park
Shanshan Wu
Production Team
* LAMDA staff member or visiting artist
Stage Manager
Lily O’Connor*
Deputy Stage Manager
Maia Thompson
Rehearsal DSM
Katy Ross*
Prop Supervisors
Ellie Penney
Mia Stubbings*
Production Manager
Rob Young*
Prod Lx / Programmer / Green Book Captain
Abigail Brophy
PSE
Holly Higgs
Sound #1
Callum Duncan
Production Carpenter
Peter Johnston
Deputy Production Carpenter
Ace Turner