Your word is “Maladroit.”
It’s an adjective of French origin meaning awkward, clumsy or inept. As in, “the students were ashamed of their maladroit attempt to spell the word that got them eliminated from the competition.”
This might be one of the many words that audiences hear during the 2025 Off-Broadway revival of The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee at New World Stages, 20 years after the original production opened on Broadway.
The show follows six tweens who are vying to become the regional champion on their way to the national spelling bee. The concept is simple: The entire show takes place during a single set piece of the titular spelling bee. Contestants who spell words correctly continue, those who don’t are escorted offstage with the dreaded ding of the elimination bell and, by the end of the show, one winner remains. But the production is more than a mock-competition.
As each contestant approaches the microphone to spell their next word, they deliver a soliloquy about where they come from, who they are and where they want to be when they grow up. Along the way, contestants not only find the conviction to navigate difficult etymologies, but they also build friendships, discover their own agency and overcome the expectations of their parents.
The 2025 cast includes Kevin McHale (Glee) as William Barfée, last year’s finalist who spells out words with his “magic foot”; Tony Award nominee Jasmine Amy Rogers (Boop!) as shy newcomer Olive Ostrovsky; Justin Cooley (Kimberly Akimbo) as the socially awkward homeschooler Leaf Coneybear; and Matt Manuel (Ain’t Too Proud) as Mitch Mahoney, a counselor who comforts eliminated contestants. This limited-run revival is directed by Danny Mefford, best known for his work as the choreographer for Kimberly Akimbo, Dear Evan Hansen and Fun Home.
During early rehearsals, Mefford asked the cast to bring in photos of themselves when they were the age of their characters and tell stories about that time.
“There was a common thread between every single story, where everybody is in their head and going through what they think they’re being perceived as in school and all anybody wants is to not feel like they’re being othered,” Kevin McHale told Newsweek in an interview. “I feel like doing that [exercise] really allowed all of us to be put back into that place.”
Sharing those emotions and experiences with their fellow castmates demonstrated how anyone, no matter their background or age, can relate to this show and its characters.
At the beginning of the show, Cooley’s character, Leaf, believes himself to be an imposter, revealing that his family tells him he’s “not that smart.” But after nailing the spelling of “acouchi,” he gains a newfound confidence in his intellect, which carries him through the rest of the competition.
Stepping back in time to relive the innocence and strangeness of being a kid was a deeply healing experience for Cooley.
“I remember being anxious and weird and embarrassed, but looking back, I just have love for that kid,” he said. “I’m honestly like, ‘Where is that kid? Let’s bring him out again.’”
Twenty years ago, the original 2005 production of Spelling Bee was nominated for six Tony Awards and won two, including Best Book from Rachel Sheinkin. A few members of the original creative team were involved in the 2025 production, including Sheinkin, music supervisor Carmel Dean and producer Barbara Whitman.
But with every performance, there are a few new collaborators thrown into the mix, by way of audience participation. Every night, a volunteer from the crowd is invited onstage to be a guest speller.
In those moments, Tony Award nominee Lilli Cooper (POTUS, Spring Awakening), who plays moderator and former spelling bee champ Rona Lisa Peretti, and Jason Kravits (The Drowsy Chaperone), who plays Vice Principal Doug Panch, have the chance to improv as the main adults in the show. In addition to updated jokes and cultural references to keep the script feeling fresh, Mefford said riffing with the audience is what brings a “2025 sensibility” to each performance.
While the staging and script feel contemporary, the themes and journeys of each character remain timeless. As the director, Mefford notes that Spelling Bee is a bit of a Trojan Horse.
“It comes at you silly, but then it’s actually uncovering all of these deep things about human nature, about competitions, about what we do to our children, how these children respond and, ultimately, how we learn,” he said.
The “secret weapon” of Spelling Bee, Mefford adds, is that it becomes a proxy for many things—especially theater.
In the Act One song “Pandemonium,” the characters roll their eyes at the easy words given to their competition, like “hospital,” “crayon” and “broccoli,” while they have to tackle words like “staphylococcus.” In their distress, the kids whine that, “life is random and unfair” and “the best spellers don’t necessarily win.”
What play as trivial complaints within the show resonate deeply with the cast offstage. Those lessons can be tough for a person at any age to learn, especially young kids under intense pressure who have tied their entire self-worth to winning a regional spelling contest. As actors, the cast understands the disappointment, insecurity and triumph of chasing their dreams.
Autumn Best (Netflix’s Woman of the Hour) plays Logainne SchwartzandGrubenierre, a stress case with two overbearing fathers. As a child actor, she had to learn from a young age that rejection isn’t necessarily a personal attack.
“I relate to [Logainne] in a lot of ways—she wants to make her family proud and be the best kid possible and she pushes herself really hard,” she said. “When I was a kid, I felt like I had the weight of the world on my shoulders [but] in the end, it all worked out.”
Kravits, a character actor on stage and screen, describes the characters in Spelling Bee as a bunch of kids who feel like misfits. Their experiences are a direct parallel to the people who “found their tribe” in the theater.
“You could do the best job you can, [but] it’s not a meritocracy,” Kravits said. “Life isn’t fair and the thing that gets you through is when you find your community.”
It takes courage to put oneself out there and face rejection and failure in front of an audience. But for these kids, embracing their struggles and pouring their hearts into the niche activity they love connects them to a network that will embrace and celebrate them.
“These kids are a little weird and the thing that’s most wonderful is that none of the other kids are judging them for their quirkiness,” said Leana Rae Concepcion (Merrily We Roll Along), who plays Marcy Park, an overachiever who speaks six languages. “That’s really the big similarity with theater, this is where all the quirky kids went and no one ever shuns you because that’s what brings out the best performances.”
Even with the high concept and the improv elements, Spelling Bee is ultimately a story about kindness and empathy—not only for strangers onstage and fellow competitors, but also for yourself. Audiences will come for a silly spelling competition and the chance to test their own orthographic skills onstage, but the cast hopes they will leave with a greater understanding for their younger selves and others.
Rogers, who plays Olive, earned a Tony nomination for her Broadway debut as Betty Boop last season. When she thinks about Olive’s journey throughout the spelling bee, Rogers is reminded of her own path. And she believes the audience will feel the same way.
“It’s healing for your soul and it’s fun to watch,” she said.
The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee is now in previews. It opens at New World Stages on November 17, 2025, and will run until February 15, 2026.
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.newsweek.com ’
