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• If you go: "The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee"

HUNTINGTON -- How does the Marshall Artists Series spell hilarious?

S-P-E-L-L-I-N-G B-E-E.

The Marshall Artists Series will be closing out its 72nd season with some song and dance, and some snorts and chuckles.

It's the nerd-and-word filled fun of the Tony Award-winning musical comedy "The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee," to be performed live at 8 p.m. Tuesday, April 28, at the Keith-Albee Performing Arts Center.

Tickets are $55, $50 and $45. Youth tickets are $27.50, $25 and $22.50.

To clear the confusion early on, let it be known that this musical is based in Putnam County, N.Y., and is not employing kid spellers from Cabell County's neighboring county of Putnam County, W.Va.

Run on Broadway from April 2005 to Jan. 20 2008, the musical captures the journey of six young spellers in the throes of puberty and overseen by grown-ups who barely managed to escape childhood themselves.

Along the way, the oft-quirky and heart-warming show teaches that winning isn't everything and that losing doesn't necessarily make you a loser.

Joanna Krupnick, a 22-year-old Ithaca College graduate, has chalked up more than 175 performances as Logainne Schwartzandgrubenierre, the name-challenged, youngest and most politically active speller who has "two fathers."

Out with the show since October, she has fallen in love with the celebration of this slice of Americana, which culminates each year with the national spelling bee. This year's Scripps National Spelling Bee is set for May 26-28, in Washington, D.C.

"Spelling is really something that if you study anybody can be really good at it," Krupnick said. "It's invigorating to watch kids try really hard at something, and I don't know why it has been in such vogue lately with the movie, 'Spellbound' and this musical, and national TV showing the kids at the nationals, but I think it has to do with it being developed into such a fun contest, and, that anybody can work from the bottom up and be good at it."

Several willing participants in the audience will get a chance to spell on stage with the cast, as four folks are picked at each stop to compete.

A couple local celebrities have been picked as the first two contestants: WTCR morning show host and local theater veteran Clint McElroy, as well as new West Virginia Secretary of State and former news anchor, Natalie Tennant.

They join a wide range of national celebs from Al Sharpton to Cincinnati Reds radio announcer Marty Brennaman, as folks who have put their spelling skills on the stage.

Two more people will be picked from the audience, which signs up in the lobby before the show for a chance to get up on stage.

One of the founders of First Stage Theatre Company, and someone who's gotten great reviews for portrayals in a wide range of roles from Nicely-Nicely in "Guys and Dolls" to John Adams in "1776," McElroy was one of the guest spellers picked in August 2005 when he saw the show on Broadway with his family.

Sporting a hearty Hulk Hogan-esque fu-manchu moustache from a 2005 portrayal in Huntington Outdoor Theatre's production that summer of "Beauty and the Beast," McElroy was picked out of the crowd to hop up on stage and spell with the original Broadway cast including Dan Fogler, who created and played the character, William Barfee, and who was most recently in the comedy "Balls of Fury."

McElroy said he ended up spelling five words, and like the guest spellers do, dance with the cast and become a part of the ever-changing show, that was birthed as a total improv play before being more defined for Broadway.

After coolly nailing a Nova Scotian sailing term, McElroy finally got out one of those super spelling bee words -- xerophthalmiology.

Since that was his first day in New York, McElroy, who got a juice box for participating, kept getting recognized around NYC from the subway to a coffee shop outside of Rockefeller Center.

McElroy, who's directed a ton of shows, said Bee works on a many levels as a musical built on a quick-witted play that has a good depth of characters that were first sketched out during improv sessions.

"The music is great, and I love it for its characters," McElroy said. "They develop and change during the play. It took years of putting it together, and I think each one of these characters have been developed. They're all outsiders, and we are all outsiders in one way, shape or another. Everybody can identify with what these kids are going through because we have all been there trying to fit in and find our niche."

Krupnick said be prepared for lots of laughs during this bookworm battle royal that The New York Times called "riotously funny and remarkably ingenious. Gold stars all around." The Wall Street Journal called it, "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."

"Of course it is fun because every single person in the world has some nerdish tendencies," Krupnick said. "This is bringing them out and saying what's normal? It's refreshing to play characters that aren't trashy and shallow and all that stuff we see on TV. My character is like the purest form of innocence. She thinks she is completely normal, and it's fun to play children who are not full aware of what they are putting out there."

Krupnick said that while everyone can get a chuckle at the awkward tweens and their overbearing parents, there are some good lessons to be learned as well.

As she says, get ready to laugh and cry at what she called a little gem of a show.

"In this era of baby boomer parenting there has been a lot of pressure from parents to do really well," Krupnick said. "College admission is skyrocketing and entry scores are so high and there is so much overachieving. We are sort of riding out that wave of all the pressure that parents put on these kids, and that kids put on themselves, with or without reasons to be the winner. And what is a winner? Maybe just being there is a winner."

Courtesy of Scott Suchman

The cast of the national touring production of the Tony-award winning musical comedy "The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee." The show will be the final of the season for the Marshall Artists Series. It will be at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, April 28, at the Keith-Albee Performing Arts Center.

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Courtesy of Scott Suchman

Christian Busath in the national touring production of "The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee." The show will be the final of the season for the Marshall Artists Series. It will be at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, April 28, at the Keith-Albee Performing Arts Center.

Purchase this photo

Courtesy of Scott Suchman

Joanna Krupnick in the national touring production of "The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee." The show will be the final of the season for the Marshall Artists Series. It will be at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, April 28, at the Keith-Albee Performing Arts Center.

Purchase this photo

Courtesy of Scott Suchman

Nikki Switzer and Anthony Lopez in the national touring production of "The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee." The show will be the final of the season for the Marshall Artists Series. It will be at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, April 28, at the Keith-Albee Performing Arts Center.

Purchase this photo