Hand Them Their Juice-Box: 'Spelling Bee' Closes Jan.20

After running for three years in New York City, the musical The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee plays its final Broadway performance today, Sunday, January 20, 2008 at Circle in the Square Theatre (West 50th St., between Broadway and 8th).  The award-winning musical played 1,136 performances and 21 previews on Broadway.

The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee opened on Broadway on May 2, 2005, following a critically acclaimed, sold-out off-Broadway run at Second Stage Theatre, where it began performances on January 11, 2005 and officially opened on February 7, 2005.   The musical had its world premiere production at Barrington Stage Company in July 2004.  Winner of Two Tony Awards (Best Book of a Musical and Best Featured Actor in a Musical for Dan Fogler), The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee became the first Broadway musical of the 2004-05 season to recoup its investment, doing so in just 18 weeks, an amazingly short time for a Broadway musical to earn back its capitalization.

A successful national tour of The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee is currently playing around the country, most recently at the National Theater in Washington, D.C. (Peter Marks of The Washington Post called the production "laugh-out-loud funny").  The musical has enjoyed lengthy sit-down productions in Chicago, San Francisco, and Boston, and has been produced internationally in Melbourne and Sydney.

A hilariously hip musical comedy, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee features six young people in the throes of puberty, overseen by grown-ups who barely managed to escape childhood themselves, learning that winning isn't everything and that losing doesn't necessarily make you a loser.

At each performance, four audience volunteers are invited onstage to participate in the Bee.  The New York production has welcomed over 4,500 audience volunteers, almost all appearing on a Broadway stage for the first time. Among the volunteer spellers were Julie Andrews, Lea Salonga, Raul Esparza, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Stephen Graham, Jeffrey Toobin, Curtis Sliwa, National Spelling Bee Champ Kelly Close and Al Sharpton (in his infamous cameo on the 2005 Tony Awards).

The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee has music and lyrics by William Finn, book by Rachel Sheinkin, choreography by Dan Knechtges, conceived by Rebecca Feldman and directed by James Lapine.

The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee currently stars Aaron J. Albano as Chip Tolentino, Stanley Bahorek as Leaf Coneybear, Jenni Barber as Olive Ostrovsky, Jared Gertner as William Barfee, James Monroe Iglehart as comfort counselor Mitch Mahoney, Sara Inbar as Logainne Schwartzandgrubinneirre, Greta Lee as Marcy Park, Daniel Pearce as Vice Principal Douglas Panch, and Jennifer Simard as Rona Lisa Perretti. For more information, please visit www.spellingbeethemusical.com.