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The Producers of the Tony Award-winning musical The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, have announced a long run engagement in Chicago beginning March 2006 at the Drury Lane Theatre Water Tower Place. This will be the first production of Spelling Bee since becoming a Broadway success, and it will be directed by James Lapin, the Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize winner who also directed the Broadway production.
This will be Chicago's second open ended musical production from the producer David Stone, who is also one of the main producers of Wicked, which is currently playing at the Ford Center for Performing Arts Oriental Theatre.
Although this show will be at the Drury Lane Theatre, it will be part of the Broadway In Chicago 2006 Season Series and should help Drury Lane get it's name out as a new theatre destination venue in the heart of Michigan Avenue.
In the 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, six young people in the throes of puberty, overseen by grown-ups who barely managed to escape childhood themselves, learn that winning isn't everything and that losing doesn't necessarily make you a loser. "Can you spell i-r-r-e-s-i-s-t-i-b-l-e? Spelling Bee is riotously funny and remarkably ingenious. Gold starts all around," says the New York Times. In the Wall Street Journal, Spelling Bee was called, "perfect in every possible way - that rarity of rarities, a super-smart musical that is also a bona fide crowd pleaser. An ingenious blend of simplicity and sophistication, it's not merely funny, it's wise." The critic went on to say, "I predict it will run forever."