Once you get over being assaulted aurally by the overuse of microphones, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee is pleasing, light entertainment. Seven highly competitive, somewhat nerdy teens participate in a spelling bee. They love words and they love to win. Overachievers unite!

The cast delivers the goods—particularly Katie Boren as Marcy Park, the Asian who excels effortlessly at everything—she speaks six languages, twirls a baton, plays piano, does the splits—until she decides that she’d be happier not being Little Miss Perfect. Dana Steingold plays Logainne Schwartzandgrugenierre with a lithp, so she’s hard to underthtand at times. Vanessa Ray is sweet and tender as Olive (switch the first two vowels in her name and what do you get? I love—that’s the way these kids think), a penniless teen whose father is late for the bee and whose mother is at an ashram in India.

During the show’s intermissionless 105 minutes there are plenty of jokes about puberty, some insight into the gotta-get-an-A-or-else mentality, and references to newsworthy names such as Harry Potter’s Dumbledore, Larry Craig, and Nancy Pelosi. And in the age old tradition of vaudeville, the audience gets in on the act. Four members of the audience, all good sports, joined the actors onstage and after having been eliminated from the competition were rewarded with much applause.

Spelling Bee is good fun, but underlying Rachel Sheinkin’s script and William Finn’s cheerful music and witty lyrics are some sad truths about today’s youth. Many fear that failure to win means losing their parents’ love  It’s the word version of soccer parents, with plenty of good laughs.