Six young people in the throes of puberty, overseen by grown-ups who barely managed to escape childhood themselves, learn that winning isn’t everything and that losing doesn’t necessarily make you a loser.

The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee is a hilarious tale of overachievers’ angst, chronicling the experience of six adolescent outsiders vying for the spelling championship of a lifetime. The show’s Tony Award-winning creative team has created the unlikeliest of hit musicals about the unlikeliest of heroes: A quirky yet charming cast of outsiders for whom a spelling bee is the ultimate prize.

This Rice Theater production is directed by Paul Hope.