Written by orange• August 19, 2025• 1:04 am• Black Jack Theatricals, Musical, Review, Uncategorized

Black Jack Theatricals presents: The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee @ Phantom Projects – Review

photo credit: Jeffrey Rosentahl Photography

Written by Patrick Chavis

Black Jack Theatrical Presents: 25th Annual Putnam Spelling Bee at Phantom Projects Theatre in La Habra, August 14 – 17, 2025.

Black Jack Theatricals, a new Orange County theater company, brings out the wonderfully hilarious characters that this musical is known for and keeps this deceptively poignant comedy moving. Fans of the musical will appreciate the gusto of the characters on stage and many, many of these lovely performances.

Story:

25th Annual Putnam Spelling Bee is the story of a spelling bee and the unique characters vying for that top spot. Uniquely, not only are there characters, but people from the audience can also sign up and compete, which also becomes part of the joke, so get your spelling tight because you might be on the stage next.

Utilizing a wide but not necessarily deep stage and the theater’s aisle, the contestants sit on the left part of the stage with a row of manila chairs, some slightly lifted. On the other side of space, there is a single white table for the contestant judges. In the middle of the stage is a microphone for the eager spellers. Lacking a strong concept of design with this production, the lighting from Noemi Ortiz and choreography from Anthony Tuason & Hailey Thomas somewhat help to fill in the gaps.

When stagnant, the vocalists sounded quite good on this stage. But with movement, vocal issues did arise primarily in the first act.

While there was no live band, the recorded track played quite well, although not without some balance issues.

Acting:

Olives Ostrovsky’s (Ashley Eller) rendition of “The I Love You Song” will melt the coldest hearts. That was divine to my ears.

Jordan Hicks’s commitment to the lisp from her character Logainne SchwartzandGrubenierre, as well as the powerful and controlled vocals, filled that stage up and made it look easy.

Mara Stanford is such a lovable goofball as the character of Leaf Coneybear, a speller with some otherworldly connection. Stanford, with the Superman cap and spirit, doesn’t hold back Coneybear’s unique sensibilities on the stage.