My Friend The Dictionary / The I Love You Song

These are the two songs from the musical 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, performed by the character Olive Ostrovsky. The firs song of the medley isa shortened version of My Friend The Dictionary, mainly used to set up the context of the second song, The I Love You Song. In the musical, this song is performed by Olive, the spelling bee contestant, and her absent mother and equally absent father. The song is sad, almost tragic. The parents claim to love their daughter dearly, while in reality they have abandoned her as they seek their own life’s meaning. Olive alternates between yearning for the parental love she isn’t getting, and calling out her parents for their failures.

This adaptation requires each singer to change roles as the song progresses. The Verse sets up the context, sung as a standard quartet. In the Intro, the Lead starts out as the Olive character, backed instrumentally by the trio. Then in Chorus 1, all four blend to become the parental group. Then in the interlude, the Lead again assumes the role of Olive, again joined by the supportingtrio. At Chorus 2, the trio breaks off to again form the parental group; at no point should they acknowledge the presence of Olive. Finally, the Tag reprises the Intro as Olive
laments her sad fate.

It is up to the quartet to communicate to the audience those character changes. How the quartet groups and
regroups itself is one obvious technique. Another option is when they are playing the role of Olive at the
spelling bee, they could put on numerical placards, as suggested in the album cover art.