Cast of 'Spelling Bee' talented, delightful

While "The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee" may not be the most thrilling of musicals, many in the audience at the North Charleston Performing Arts Center Tuesday night found the production charming, especially us kids.

Nikki Switzer, as emcee Rona Lisa Peretti, demonstrated a clear, strong and beautifully focused voice that helped lend credibility to the proceedings, while almost everyone else tried to see what may elicit laughs.

Assistant Principal Panch, nicely developed by Anthony Lopez, read the words along with some of the daffiest definitions imaginable.

To the six professional actors playing participants were added three members of the audience, who innocently took part in a spelling bee before the show, earning the right to be onstage. Being called the "only fifth-grader with a goatee" must be some kind of distinction.

Music, provided live, you may not carry home with you, but we will not forget Christian Busath as the nerd who spells with his foot, the loopy Ryan Goodale and Joanna Krupnick playing the feisty lesbian daughter of two gay men.

Brittany Ross' lovely child, Yvonne Same's overscheduled perfectionist and Kavin Panmeechao's teenager beset with hormones completed the characterizations of the very able cast.