u/Saturnofmarz

I’ve really never seen anyone give this musical the love it deserves, I think it has so much meaning and it shows it through a lot of different ways! Heres my rant about it

It feels like each word that the kids get out on means something important. from the beginning, Chip gets out on tittup, which is a horse term. This signifies that he needs to “get off his high horse” and get rid of his assuming confidence in winning. He only believes that he has potential within this group (also shown in the fact that his song has no backing vocals; which shows that he only holds faith in his own potential to win) so him getting out first essentially takes him off his reign of confidence and gives him a “newfound sense of humility” which is said by Rona Peretti after his loss

Leaf Coneybear gets off on the word chinchilla, which symbolizes how his family sees him as an animal but in reality he is a sentimental person who is deeply sensitive (which is what chinchillas symbolize!) also he is compared to an animal very frequently so its nice to see that he actually is that smart.

Then theres Logainne Shwartzandgruibenniere! She has a very complicated life, she has a parasocial relationship with her biological mother who cares very little for her and only sends her self absorbed cards on occasion. While her fathers put an ungodly amount of pressure on her, she also does it to. She is 9-12 years old and cares about politics and wether or not someone is a virgin “shown in my friend the dictionary” she gets out on the word “vug” which she spells as vugghe. Once again she over complicates her life. Her lesson is to slow down. This change in her is shown from “Woe is me” to the reprise which goes from the fastest song in the show to the slowest song in the show. She learns to slow down and simplify her own desires and life

And then Marcy Park gets out on camouflage because she learns that she can stop pretending to be the perfect child and she can take down her own camouflage but only if she’s committed, ergo, she purposely looses as that is the first step to growth

Olive Ostrovsky gets out on the word Elanguescance, which is descriptive of her situation to a tee. Until this spelling bee, she had begun to fade out of existence and become background noise. But the Bee gave her some newfound confidence. Also, the only time that olive is allowed to belt during the show is the” mama mama mama“and the “i will not come in second” This shows how her values shift, she begins by only caring for her parent’s opinions and attention and she grows to learn that she has the potential to win and grow without their love

finally, William Barfeè. he wins the bee with the word Weltanschauug. This word is pretty comparable to the idea of a paradigm. Its basically a complete change of perspective within a person. And barfees perspective changes after he realizes he can win and he can make friends. As he previously had to leave the bee early for medical reasons (presumably the year before) Barfee had to win to learn that he could be kind and patient but olive had to loose to learn that she could thrive without her parents and she has space to grow

Also! Every time rona sings about one of her favorite parts of the bee, she includes a syzygy, which is the word she won her spelling bee on!

anyways, let me know what you think. I really love this musical and its a hidden gem!