The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee is a musical comedy with music and lyrics by William Finn, a book by Rachel Sheinkin, conceived by Rebecca Feldman with additional material by Jay Reiss. The show centers on a fictional spelling bee set in geographically ambiguous Putnam Valley Middle School. Sixquirky adolescents compete in the spelling bee, run by four equally quirky grown-ups. An unusual aspect of teh show is that four real audience members are invited on stage to compete in the spelling bee alongside the six young characters.