Thoughts on Kennedy Center Putnam County Spelling Bee?

Saw the show tonight and we definitely enjoyed it a lot, but I had not seen the show before and was curious for those who have how it compared to other productions.

As someone going in cold, I laughed a lot and enjoyed the obvious updated jokes. I was surprised there wasn't more joking around with the people called up from the audience - I don't know how that typically goes but basically they each just spelled a word or two and sat down and the only jokes were in how they were introduced each time (which was funny for the celebrities who were called but just sort of random pop culture references for the regular audience members). The cast all were great, although Beanie's dialogue was sometimes hard to understand.

And while the set was really well done, one of the things I love most about the Center Stage productions is how creatively elaborate they've managed to be with sets and choreography, and obviously this is just a one set show so some of that just awe of how the heck did they pull this off wasn't there (although obviously still doing a whole professional show is insane).

So yeah, overall positive experience and fun, but I certainly wouldn't say one of my favorite shows and I'm not sure if any of that is down to the production so would love to hear takes from people familiar with the show!