Wagon Wheel Summer Season Closes With 'Spelling Bee'
Posted
Staff Report-
The Ramada Wagon Wheel Theatre presents its sixth and final show of the 2010 Summer Season with "The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee".
The show runs Aug. 18-28. Single adult tickets are $30 for all shows. Tickets for students 13 through college are $16, and children 12 and under are $12. Opening nights and matinees are $22 for seniors. Special rates are available for groups of 15 or more.
To order tickets or for more information about upcoming events at the Wagon Wheel Theatre in Warsaw, call the box office today at 574-267-8041 or toll-free at 866-823-2618. The website is at www.wagonwheeltheatre.com
This musical with a long title is also long on laughs. What started out as a team improv sketch about a half dozen sixth-grade spelling bee competitors eventually became a Broadway smash in 2005 winning the Tony Award for Best Book in a Musical.
Its commercial and critical success prompted a national tour as well as numerous productions in cities across the U. S.
The Wagon Wheel Theatre is excited to bring this show to the northern Indiana area where most audiences have not had the opportunity to witness a musical production like it.
One unusual aspect about the show is its use of four audience members who compete in the spelling bee. Sometimes randomly chosen and sometimes pre-planned (be sure to look for your favorite local celebrity onstage at the Wheel), unuspecting spellers are lifted out of their seats to try their hand at words like "crepuscule" (the show's original title) and "palaestra".
The show will also be a treat for the Wagon Wheel's long-time subscribers who have come to expect some of the fresher works from Broadway as soon as they are available to regional theaters.The show, while known for its outrageous hilarity, is also touching. Each student, after misspelling a word, relates to the audience something about their home-life, often funny, sometimes heartwarming or even sorrowful.
The show gives rare and surprising insight into the hearts of a group of pre-teenagers that will have audiences in hysterics and also in tears.
