By Candace KawStaff writer

The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee was nominated for six Tony awards and won two – Best Book of a Musical and Best Featured Actor. Jennifer Simard, who plays former Spelling Bee champ Rona Lisa Peretti, and Alan H. Green, who plays Mitch Mahoney, the Bee’s “Comfort Counselor,” talked to the Oracle about their characters, experience on tour and childhood spelling bees.

Candace Kaw: Why do you think the musical has been so successful?

Jennifer Simard: I think it has been successful because most people can relate to it. I think we all can remember what it was like to be a kid and many of us had to compete in a mini spelling bee in school to see if someone from the school could go forward. I know William Finn, the (show’s) composer, is a big fan of reality TV shows and there is something very real about a competition, and I think that most people also know as a kid that they felt like they didn’t fit in, that they were misfits of some kind. Who we are as kids – events that happened to us as kids – often shape what happens to us when we are adults.

Alan Green: I think the show is successful because it is smart and has heart. The show is also unique and people aren’t quite sure what to expect. I think people are pleasantly surprised to find that the show is not only hilarious, but packs an emotional punch.

CK: As a kid, were you ever in a spelling bee?

JS: Yes, I was in a spelling bee in the sixth grade and I got out on the word “chief,” believe it or not.

AG: Absolutely not. I inherited many things from my father and one is that I cannot spell. A friend of mine pointed out that I had the word “salutatorian” misspelled on my Web site. That is kinda ironic, don’t you think?

CK: Can you relate at all to your character?

JS: Oh, definitely. I love this woman (Rona Lisa Perretti). I think that she is very type-A personality, which I am a little bit guilty of. I have a back story of her for myself, and I think that she is very concerned about doing the right thing, crossing her “T”s and dotting her “I”s. I have my little quirks and ticks and she certainly does, too, and those become clear by the end of the musical.

AG: I don’t know much about prison or community service as a sentence, but I can definitely relate to being misunderstood simply by the way I look. Of course, in my normal life I am not as, shall we say, “ornamented,” as good Ol’ Mitch – but people see a large black man and that can bring out a lot of fear in people in this country.

Just today, at the hotel I am staying in, a woman was putting her two young kids in the elevator and I heard her tell them she was going to the bathroom and she would be up in a second. I came around the corner and got in the elevator with the two young kids and as the door was closing, the woman frantically stuck her hand in to get the door to open back up and she stepped in.

Her daughter said, ‘Mom, I thought you were going to the bathroom down there.’ The mother looked at me and then said to her daughter “I changed my mind.” Mitch and I definitely have that in common.

CK: What is it like being on tour so far?JS: It’s been great – we are several months in now and this is a great group of people I am touring with, and that has made it very lovely. It’s great to see different parts of the country, different cities that I have never been to. It’s wonderful to play a different theater every week or every other week – it keeps you on your toes, keeps it fresh, keeps it interesting.

AG: I love it. I get to bring my work to friends and family all across the country. It’s a lot of fun to me. It’s great working in New York too, but everyone can’t get to New York. I’ve gotten to see family and friends that I haven’t seen in a while and reconnect – that has been fantastic.

CK: I read you (Jennifer Simard) have been casted to be in the Broadway version – how are you feeling about that?

JS: I am humbled and honored. That doesn’t happen everyday and I don’t take it for granted. I’m obviously really very, very excited. And I’ll get to be home with my husband so that’s icing on the cake.

The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee is playing at the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center tonight at 8 p.m., Saturday at 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $32.50-$68.50. For more information, visit www.tbpac.com or www.spellingbeethemusical.com/tour.daughter “I changed my mind.” Mitch and I definitely have that in common.

CK: What is it like being on tour so far?JS: It’s been great – we are several months in now, and this is a great group of people I am touring with, and that has made it very lovely. It’s great to see different parts of the country, different cities that I have never been to. It’s wonderful to play a different theater every week or every other week – it keeps you on your toes, keeps it fresh, keeps it interesting.

AG: I love it. I get to bring my work to friends and family all across the country. It’s a lot of fun to me. It’s great working in New York too, but everyone can’t get to New York. I’ve gotten to see family and friends that I haven’t seen in a while and reconnect – that has been fantastic.

CK: I read you (Jennifer Simard) have been casted to be in the Broadway version – how are you feeling about that?JS: I am humbled and honored. That doesn’t happen everyday and I don’t take it for granted. I’m obviously really very, very excited. And I’ll get to be home with my husband so that’s icing on the cake.

The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee is playing at the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center tonight at 8, Saturday at 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $32.50-$68.50. For more information, visit www.tbpac.com or www.spellingbeethemusical.com/tour.

By Beth DamianoCorrespondent

Spellers are deterred from their ultimate goal of becoming the spelling bee champion by different distractions – such as a pretty girl and a vision of Jesus explaining that whether a speller wins the bee isn’t an issue he thinks about a lot – in The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee.

At the beginning, four members of the audience are chosen to participate in the bee. They are given difficult words, and when they fail to spell the words correctly – which they will eventually, even if they are called up multiple times in a row – “Comfort Counselor” Mitch Mahoney (Alan H. Green) sings a song of comfort, gives them a juice box and escorts them offstage.

For those who want to stay onstage as long as possible, be ready for real and made up words such as “catarjunes,” “halitosis” and “pakapoop.” The cast has been known to make up words to get an especially good audience speller offstage.

There are some choreographed moments, such as the scene of “Pandemonium” during the song of the same name, and a dance routine between William Barfee (it’s pronounced Bar-FEY – the accent is on the second syllable, the overwhelmed boy explains again and again), played by Eric Peterson, and the shy and sweet Olive Ostrovsky (Lauren Worsham).

While the show has many funny moments – what else would one expect from a show with a song entitled “My Unfortunate Erection” – the storyline with Olive is very moving. The little girl’s parents are splitting up (her mother is in Bombay and her father is burying himself in his work), and she sings the heart-wrenching “The I Love You Song” about her confusion.

The only problem with the show is that at several moments, many people will sing different lyrics all at once, which makes it very difficult to hear what exactly is being sung.

The show ends with the actors standing up and announcing what has happened to their character later on in life. The bee’s dorkiest character gets the shortest line during this scene: “Leaf Coneybear (Michael Zahler) has cats!”