Video: Jesse Tyler Ferguson Responds to Canceled School Production Of THE 25TH ANNUAL PUTNAM COUNTY SPELLING BEE
Ferguson said that the message the cancelation sends to LGBTQ students is "toxic, and harmful, and kind of abusive."
By: Chloe Rabinowitz Feb. 02, 2023
BroadwayWorld previously reported that the Cardinal Schools Board of Education has canceled a spring production of The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee after deeming the musical "not family-freindly."
The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee is the winner of the Tony and the Drama Desk Awards for Best Book by Rachel Sheinkin and features a vibrant score by William Finn.
According to the Geauga County Maple Leaf, the board "received a complaint from a resident on Jan. 11" and several other families registered concerns about the production.
The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee original cast member Jesse Tyler Ferguson shared his thoughts about the cancellation on Instagram, stating in the caption, "Some thoughts about Cardinal School in Ohio canceling their production of 'Spelling Bee' because they deemed it 'not family friendly.' They have given many reasons but all of them are obvious and thinly veiled covers of some bigger things."
In The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee the character of Logainne has two gay fathers.
Ferguson stated, "I guaranteed that there is someone at this school who is maybe being raised by gay parents, but definitely more than one person at this school is gay, or lesbian, or bisexual, and the message that this sends to them, that that is not family appropriate, or family friendly, rather, is toxic, and harmful, and kind of abusive."
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