Do you ever feel like the pressure to succeed is just too great? Like you just might lose your job to the brown-noser in the next cubicle, like everything you are is wrapped up in whether or not you get that next raise or promotion? And when you remember back to your childhood, does it seem like it wasn't really any better back then...?

The show places us at an actual spelling bee -- surely among the fiercest and cruelest of America's gladiatorial arenas -- complete with a few audience members among the spellers. But underneath the sharp, biting comedy, there's an insightful, sometimes difficult look at the dark side of American ambition and competitiveness, and the insecurities and fears we all face every day. We are these kids, we finally realize, always being tested one more time, never able to rest on our laurels. You'll laugh your ass off and then spend the next week on your therapist's couch.

The New York Times wrote about the show, "It's the more private but enduring triumphs -- the connection finally made with a member of the opposite sex, the discovery of previously unknown pockets of self-esteem -- that are really being celebrated. . . . Spelling Bee is not extravagant in its aims, but it lives up to its goals in a way that the season's bigger, glitzier and more ambitious musicals mostly don't. Gold stars all around!" The Boston Globe said, "Spelling Bee has everything a rollicking musical should have: wit and grace, heart and soul, charm and a bit of a bite." SPELLING BEE won two Tony Awards, two Theatre World Awards, and three Drama Desk Awards. After the show's run at the Fox Theatre in 2007, New Line will now offer local audiences a chance to see the show in the kind of intimate setting it was written for.  

SPELLING BEE runs July 16-August 8, 2009, Thurs. through Sat. evenings, all at 8:00 p.m., at at the former CBC High School Theatre, now renamed the Washington University South Campus, 6501 Clayton Road, just east of Big Bend. July 16 is a preview. 

Tickets are on sale now at all Metrotix outlets -- $15 for adults and $10 for students/seniors on Thursdays; and $20 for adults and $15 for students/seniors on Fridays and Saturdays. To charge tickets by phone, call Metrotix at 314-534-1111 or visit any Metrotix outlet or the Metrotix website.

This show contains adult content. All programs subject to change. New Line Theatre receives funding from the Regional Arts Commission, the Fox Associates Charitable Foundation, and the Missouri Arts Council.