The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee is a musical comedy with music and lyrics by William Finn, a book by Racdhel Sheinkin, conceived by Rebecca Feldman with additional material by Jay Reiss.  The show centers on a fictional spelling bee set in a geographically ambiguous Putnam Velley Middle School.  Six quirky adolescents compete in the Bee, run by three equally quirky grown ups.  

An unusual aspect of the show is that four real aduience members are invited on stage to compete in the spelling bee alongside the six young characters.  Another amusing aspect of the show is that the official pronouncer provides ridiculous usage-in-a-sentence exapmles when asked to use words in a sentence.  Many shows are peppered with adult references and occasional profanity.