Who knew spelling bees could be so funny?

Well, I did, but only because I've seen two other productions of The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. Which makes Tacoma Little Theatre's take on the play all the more impressive - it requires a certain level of quality to make me laugh that hard at the same set of jokes over and over.

Putnam County‘s spellers are a host of middle schoolers (played by adults) with a host of eccentricities. Some of the students' eccentricities are obvious - Leaf Coneybear wanders on in a helmet and a homemade quilt-cape, for instance - and some are less so.

Two things join each of these children: a love of spelling, and a massive helping of insecurity - insecurity over their intelligence, their sexuality, their family and even with their success.

The three "adults" of the show, hostess Rona Lisa Perretti (Leischen Moore), vice principal Douglas Panch (Alex Smith) and ex-con Mitch Mahoney (Paul Eddy), help to highlight the students' flawed priorities.

Mahoney, serving community service as a "comfort counselor" to the losers, has seen real pain and real loss. But all he can do for the kids is hand them a juice box and send them on their way.

Rona is living proof that winning the bee isn't everything. After all, she won once, and still comes back every single year, nothing more glamorous than a Putnam County realtor. VP Panch is a man who has let his insecurities and eccentricities conquer him.

The children highlight each other's growth. Logainne's (Nikki Delmarter) parents are too involved, and Olive's (Siri Larson, also choreographer) are too absent. William Barfee (Terry Thibodeaux) is an outcast and assumes that means he should be mean to the world that is so mean to him; Leaf (Chris Serface) is an outcast and decides that means he can be as silly as he wants to be. Chip (Adolpho Dominguez) and Marcy (Erica Frank) are both obsessed to a fault with perfection and victory, and learn in two very different ways that winning isn't everything.

Suffice to say, the characters accomplish all of this hilariously. I haven't seen an audience laugh this hard at TLT in a long time. After a year of financial uncertainty and administrative flux, Spelling Bee bodes well for the theater: no audience reacts as positively as this to a musical comedy and fails to tell their friends.

Heck, I don't even need friends. I'll just tell you. Go see the show. And then maybe go see it again. You'll laugh. If you cry as easily as my wife, then you'll cry too. And you'll never look at spelling bee kids quite the same again.

The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee

Through Sept. 26, 7:30 p.m. Friday– Saturday
2 p.m. Sunday, $16.50-$26.50
Tacoma Little Theatre, 210 N. I St., Tacoma
253.272.2281