"THE BEE" The Musical: A Review by Dr. & Mrs. Fun

It is not very often that we get a chance to watch a musical especially with many forms of entertainment already flooding the showbiz world.  I have watched some interesting musicals in the past such as "The Willows in the Wind" at the open grounds of Fort Santiago, "Magsimula Ka" featuring Jograd dela Torre and Joanne Lorenzana in the UST Auditorium, "Chess" The Musical starring Raul Mitra and Monique Wilson at the Meralco Theater followed by "Joseph The Dreamer" and a school musical "All for the Love Of Thee: The Story of St. John Baptist dela Salle,  and a few others in The Malate Republic. 

   "The Bee" is the latest musical where me and my wife will be watching together for the first time and this will also be her first taste of this form of entertainment since she feels awkward having to hear the lines of a dialogue being sung by characters instead of conversing.  

 This particular play is also special because it featured for the first time the daughter of my eldest sister and my niece Ashley Bontogon, who played the role of ejection counselor for contestants who get booted out of the competition.  Almost the entire clan was in full force to show our support to the budding talent of our beloved niece.

The story is about six young spellers aspiring to become the grand champion of the 25th Annual RCBC Spelling Bee which incidentally was held at the  Carlos P. Romulo Auditorium  in the RCBC Plaza.  The play was conceived through a joint production by 9Works Theatrical, Stage Camp and The Rockwell Club. Each of the six contestants were eager to win the spelling bee contest for different personal reasons. Considering that spelling is not the in-thing for the many kids of today's generation, it is quite understandable that all of the characters project their own eccentricities in the story.  Some develop the skill out of dedication to the spirit of competition while some engaged in it due to obligations to appease a party who has vested interests in the future of the character.

The story also portrays many discreet social implications ranging from racism, challenges of puberty and sex, homosexuality and young romance.  Certain portions of the story may be controversial to some audience such as the racist remarks of being "Mexican" and the sexual connotation of how to get a watermelon pregnant and the implied lesbian relationship between the lead characters since it was not explicitly shown whether William Barfee was really a male character just played by a female performer, although the director could have used an actual male actor to act out the role of Barfee. 

 Overall, the play was entertaining and interesting because it shows the human side of spelling bee contestants, where they are not your perfect humans after all but typical humans with problems to hurdle and challenges to confront. 

The play was well attended and got a full house by the time the show was on the road.  However, being fresh from the camp. some of the characters are still rough on the notes, going out of tune in the high notes.  But with continued practice and exposure to future plays, all of them are well on their way to the big and exciting world of showbusiness, whether on the big screen or on the stage. And for these, we commend and congratulate the Directors Nel Gomez and Sab Jose for a job well done for these talented youth.

credits to the owner of the picture

But the biggest moment of all in the story especially for our family was when Ashley, who was not even a contestant in the spelling bee but an ejection counselor who consoles and comforts contestants that get booted out of the competition for committing a mistake in spelling the designated word, got a solo moment with Phil Younghusband, the celebrated Filipino-British football player of Azkals, who played a cameo role in the play but was a big crowd drawer due to the controversial words that he had to spell because the words were extremely easy to the dismay of the other contestants. Ashley got to hug Phil as he gets booted out when he mispelled an easy word to the delight of the other competitors.

After the play, we all proceeded to Aristocrat Restaurant to celebrate the accomplishment of Ashley.  It was a priceless moment to cherish because this is probably the first time that the clan is together and missing the company of the patriach and matriach of the Fonollera clan.  But that is what life is about, living, loving, dying, grieving and moving on.  Just like the characters of The Bee, each of them had their own lives to live after the contest.