If you were ever in a grade-school spelling bee, you might very well remember that mixture of ambition, anticipation and dread that marked the occasion.

Chances are, you won't flash back to anything funny about it. Or recall falling in love in that awkward, adolescent way while trying to figure out how to spell "crepuscule."

That's where Dutch Apple Dinner Theatre's spunky musical production of "The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee" comes in handy. All the butterflies of competition in such an event are there, but so are some pretty funny memories of what it was like to be teetering on teenhood and trying to find yourself.

The plot is simple: Six overachieving kids compete in a small-town middle school spelling event, presided over by enthusiastic teacher Rona Lisa Peretti — played in fine vocal for by Annie Freres — and neurotic vice principal Douglas Panch, whose smooth announcing voice conceals more than a little repressed baggage, as we find out later in the story. He is portrayed by Galloway Stevens, who does double-duty as director.

But it's those kids who steal the show, and each gets to shine in their own way without crowding out each other.

They're played by Ryan Dean Albers, as the boyishly geeky cape-wearing Leaf Coneybear; Julie Keough (a veteran of one of Lancaster County's other big musical venues, American Music Theatre) as the politically correct and confused Logainne Schwartzandgrubenierre (she's the daughter of a gay married couple who have combined their last names into that very long moniker); Elizabeth McMonagle as the pining, insecure Olive Ostrovsky; Steven Mooney as the even more insecure William Barfee ("That's Bar-FAY!" he reminds everybody, in vain); Jo Philbin as pressured-to-be-perfect Marcy Park; and, last but not least, Sean Riley as the hormonally tormented Chip Tolentino. More on him later.

There's one other character, parolee Mitch Mahoney, played with urban swagger by Rendell DeBose. His sentence of community service has forced this tough guy into the role of "comfort counselor," and his bemused reaction to these very suburban surroundings get the laugh ball rolling in "Spelling Bee."

Wait, I'm wrong: There are more actors in this ensemble. At each performance of "Spelling Bee," four audience members are singled out to join in the fun, and each is eliminated one by one. At the recent matinee premiere, all four unsuspecting viewers handled their sudden stardom with aplomb. Ironically, one of them was a retired professor of nursing and former elementary schoolteacher, Joan Lawler. She declared her experience "the funniest thing I've ever done," and the audience was rooting for Lawler and her newly minted acting compatriots.

If "Spelling Bee" sounds familiar, that's because a version was staged two years ago at Ephrata Performing Arts Center. But no two productions are ever quite the same. Dutch Apple's rendition was sprinkled with several amusing regional references, including a banner for the school team called "The Fighting Amish."

The show originally began as a non-musical play called "C-R-E-P-U-S-C-U-L-E," penned by an improv group called The Farm. It was turned into a musical, renamed with its present title and moved to off-Broadway before hitting the Great White Way in 2005. It ran three years and collected two Tony Awards, including one for best book of a musical.

And there is plenty of music in "Spelling Bee," all of it belted with gusto. Much of it is hilarious, especially Riley's number about his unfortunate anatomical reaction to seeing a pretty girl in the audience. That number renders "Spelling Bee" just short of family-friendly, but it is a hilarious staging. So is Philbin's musical declaration that she can speak six — not five, thank you very much — languages. A rare moment of sadness is evoked in McMonagle's paean to her parents, self-absorbed yuppies who are perpetually absent in her life.

But otherwise there aren't too many dark undercurrents in "Spelling Bee." Certainly not when Albers and Mooney threaten to take the crown as audience favorites. Albers, arrayed in that homemade cape, tinfoil hat and improbable kitty-illustrated T-shirt (we're not sure what kind of superhero he is supposed to be, and neither is his character) is right up there with Mooney, who gets laughs every time he has to adjust his ill-fitting short pants or spell out something in his sinus-condition-afflicted voice. Keough, as fans of AMT know, is as good as always, but those who've seen her in such AMT shows as "Nashville City Limits" and "California Soul" might not recognize her in her uber-trendy get-up.

"Spelling Bee" is sometimes staged with no intermission, but there is one at Dutch Apple, which expands the running time to about two hours. That's probably the only fault with the show: The second act slows down in parts and "Spelling Bee" drags for a bit. But the cast's enthusiasm — you believe these adults really are kids, with energy intact — never wavers, and it segues nicely into a sweet finish.

For the most part, "Spelling Bee" spells out E-N-J-O-Y at Dutch Apple.

"The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee" plays through March 10 at Dutch Apple Dinner Theatre, 510 Centerville Road, with matinee and evening shows. For ticket information, call 898-1900 or visit dutchapple.com. The show contains minor amounts of adult humor.