When Leaf Coneybear spells the word “capybara” correctly, no one is more surprised than him.

Leaf (played by Axel Duffy) feels like the black sheep among his achieving siblings, makes his own clothes, and is only competing in the spelling bee because the two people who beat him in the preliminary round couldn’t come.

He is one of the six school students hoping to become spelling champ in the 2005 Broadway musical The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee.

The cast of The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, September Remedy Productions in association with Hayes Theatre Co, 2023. Photo supplied

Competing alongside him are Logainne Schwartzandgrubenierre (Adeline Hunter) who has pigtails, a lisp and pushy gay dads, who she is desperate to please; the self-possessed, over-achieving Marcy Park (Jessica Kok); the shy Olive Ostrovsky (Rebecca Ordíz), who has neglectful parents and arrives on her own without the entrance fee; the hyper-allergic William Barfée (Daniel Raso), who has a mucous membrane disorder and a magic foot that helps him spell; and last year’s winner Chip Tolentino (Matthew Predny), who has well and truly hit puberty.

These misfit,...