Maybe you think a musical about a spelling bee is old-fashioned or outdated.

Consider the first word spelled out in “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee.” In a flashback, grown-up moderator Rona Lisa Peretti recalls winning the competition as a child by correctly spelling “syzygy.” It means an alignment when the moon moves between Earth and the Sun, creating a total solar eclipse.

Just like we had on April 8. That’s currency.

The stars seem aligned now for Nancy Snow Carr, who is reprising the role as Rona Lisa Peretti in Lamb’s Players Theatre’s production of the 2005 William Finn/Rachel Sheinkin musical about a middle school spelling competition. Snow Carr first portrayed Rona in a 2015 staging by the former Intrepid Shakespeare Company in San Marcos.

Snow Carr’s actor-husband Geno Carr is also reprising at Lamb’s his prior turn as Vice Principal Douglas Panch.

She says it’s the first time in her career that she has reprised a role. There have been changes in her life since that other spelling bee.

“Rona’s so different for me now that I have a child,” Snow Carr said. “Before, she was a little more concerned about herself and her own win. Now that I have my own child who’s about the age that these children would be, her heart is more with the students and with rooting for them and taking care of them.

“I now feel like I’m playing her more like a mother, even though she isn’t,” Snow Carr said.

Colleen Kollar Smith, who is choreographing “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee” in Coronado, understands that feeling.

“Having had two children, both now within the world of adolescence, it hits you in a different way, “ Kollar Smith said, “because as a parent I am most proud when I see my children working through a hard thing, and all of these young people are doing that onstage.”

Kollar Smith, who is now the executive director of UCSD’s Campus Performance and Events Office, is returning to choreography for the first time in five years, when she choreographed “Matilda the Musical” at Vista’s Moonlight Amphitheatre. She and Snow Carr became friends at Lamb’s in 2012 while working together on the comedy “The Servant of Two Masters.” Kollar Smith’s husband, actor Lance Arthur Smith, she pointed out, was a real-life spelling bee champion in the fifth grade.

Kollar Smith describes the “Spelling Bee” comedy as “heartwarming and hilarious,”

“It’s fun and funny, but it sneaks up on you because at its core it’s about belonging. As human beings we are always seeking that community,” she said.

In addition to the actors playing the six spelling bee contestants, among them Omri Schein who’s also reprising his role from the 2015 Intrepid production, the show features four audience members enlisted to come up onstage and compete.

“My favorite part is how different the show is every night with the audience volunteers,” said Snow Carr. “Geno and I are tag-teaming, coming up with fun things to say. It keeps you on your toes. You’re presented with these people and you need to be quick and witty. There’s never a moment to sit back, which is fun.”

Both Snow Carr and Kollar Smith scoff at the notion that the spelling bee is a quaint idea whose time has passed.

“You would think it’s antiquated,” said Snow Carr, “but we still need to know how to spell.”

To Kollar Smith, spelling is “a practice that we don’t emphasize as much, so it’s even more impressive to see these students who decide ‘I want to understand language. I want to be able to use words.’”

The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee’

When: Opens Saturday and runs through Aug. 18. 7 p.m. Thursdays and Fridays; 2 and 7 p.m. Wednesdays and Saturdays; 2 p.m. Sundays

Where: Lamb’s Players Theatre, 1142 Orange Ave., Coronado

Tickets: $38-$92

Phone: (619) 437-6000

Online: lambsplayers.org

Coddon is a freelance writer.