Hit Musical in Moreno Valley

Last weekend students at Valley View High School presented the Tony award-winning production of the 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. It was the first musical presented at Valley View since Fame was performed in 2008. The production started rehearsals in January before raising the curtains on April 10th. Jeanine Lopez directed the production and said, “The students came a long way since January and the audience has been really positive and, due to the popularity of this show, we would like to do shows like this every other year.” It was the first time collaboration efforts between Jeanine Lopez, musical director Jim Wilson, and Loren Gamarra (who directed the band) came together to direct a musical production at the school. The musical, the 25th Annual Putnam Spelling Bee premiered on Broadway in 2005 and was nominated for 6 Tony Awards and won 2. The musical is about six students who compete in the Spelling Bee and throughout the songs, the audience learns about the contestants and their personal lives, including a student who has to spell out his words on the floor with his foot and a student who speaks 6 languages. The show proved to be unique through its use of audience participation, including those sitting in the rows joining the students on stage to take part in the Spelling Bee. Telvis Perez came to see the show with her husband and son who goes to Valley View High School. Perez said, “it’s the first time we’re seeing a musical and looking forward to it.” At intermission, Perez said she really enjoyed the show. During the show, the audience took part in applauding or sympathizing with the contestants as they progressed to the next word or misspelled the word and had to say goodbye as they exited the stage. The show added a unique improve element, giving guest contestants the opportunity to spell at the mike. The actor, Gabriel Marcus Baxter who played Vice Principal Douglas Panch had improvisational lines for the guest spellers. As one of the audience members went to the mike, he said, “she likes to outperform the others by out-oranging them," because she was wearing an orange shirt. During intermission, cast members interacted with the audience in character and threw out candy to people as the show's second act was about to start. The audience gave a standing ovation at the end of the production. Valley View High School student Keith Moykey, came to see the show with his friend Brianna and shared, “I’m in the theatre and it makes me happy. When I joined theatre, it felt like I joined a family.” Wilson echoes this statement and said of the cast and crew, “We couldn’t ask for a better crowd of students, it’s a small cast, it’s been a great 1st experience and renewal of the musicals here, [we all became family].”