The posters declare, “If you like (the television show) Glee, you’ll love this Tony Award-winning Broadway musical!”

The musical is The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, scheduled to be presented Sept. 16-26 as the culmination of a Department of Theatre and Dance Summer Sessions program, open to students, staff, faculty and the general public.

The department has brought in three-time Granada Artist-in-Residence Mindy Cooper as director. The Broadway director, choreographer and performer led the UC Davis productions of Urinetown: The Musical in the spring of 2007 and Oklahoma! in the spring of 2009.

She is due back the spring for another Granada stint, this time as director of The Who’s Tommy.

This summer, though, Cooper is dealing with six teens who are vying in The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, featuring such numbers as “I’m Not That Smart,” “The I Love You Song“ and “Pandemonium.”

The competition, according to the Department of Theatre and Dance, “is hilariously out of control, with supernatural trances, magic body parts, ulterior motives and peer and parental pressure.”

The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee opened on Broadway in 2005, earning six nominations for Tony Awards — and winning two, for best book of a musical and best featured actor.

Says the Department of Theatre and Dance: “This heartwarming musical captures the carefree spirit of youth while bringing out the nerd in all of us!”

AT A GLANCE

WHAT: The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee

WHEN: 8 p.m. Sept. 16-18 and 23-25, and 2 p.m. Sept. 19 and 26

WHERE: Main Theatre

ADVISORY: The Department of Theatre and Dance rates this production PG-13 (based on the Motion Picture Association of America’s rating system, which says this for PG-13: “Parents strongly cautioned. Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13.)

TICKETS are available in advance through the Mondavi Center box office, (530) 754-2787 or (866) 754-2787, or mondaviarts.org; and, depending on availability, will be sold at door starting one-half hour before curtain time.