Better Late Than Never: Spelling Bee at Tidewaters

For those of you who don't know much about "The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee" I will tell you this: Get to Tidewater Players in Havre de Grace and see it! The show itself is about young spellers in their local spelling bee, complete with hummable music and a genius book. Tidewater has done a great job with the production as a whole, and I feel bad for not posting this before, but seeing as this blog literally just started, I figured that it was better late than never! If you ARE one of the readers who doesn't know much about the show, I would potentially avoid signing up to actually become a speller. Yes, part of the comedy comes from the fact that audience members who choose to participate are actually called on stage and cleverly worked into the script, most notably by the Bee's judges. I seem to have misplaced my program, which really doesn't do much for me in the ways of remembering everyone's names but cast standouts include Gary Dieter as Leaf Coneybear, a complete space cadet who is trying to prove his smarts to his large and oddly-named family and "Dickie" Mahoney as William Barfee (pronounced "bar-fay", one of the only comedic bits which grows tired by the end of the show) who pulls off Barfee's many neurotics ticks. All in all, I give the production a thumbs up, and if you're looking for something fun to do this coming weekend, I say head to HdG and see the show! Tickets are $16 and can be purchased online through their website (www.tidewaterplayers.com), in person, or by phone at 410-939-5046. Bravo, Tidewater!