Darren Day and Niki Evans-Led SPELLING BEE UK Tour Cancelled

The UK tour of William Finn's Tony Award Winning musical comedy - 'The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee', starring Darren Day and Niki Evans, has been cancelled following its first two stops. According to the offfcial website of the Connaught Theatre, the full tour, including stops in Barnstaple, Kettering, High Wycombe, Crawley, Blackpool, Jersey and Eastbourne have been cancelled due to a lack of funding.

'Spelling Bee' is a musical comedy that centres on the lives of six quirky adolescents who have entered into the 'Bee', a competition that asks the contestants to spell a variety of words, usually with a broad degree of difficulty, which is run by three equally as quirky grown-ups.

The full cast included; Rhys Owen as Mitch Mahoney, Ellie Mason as Olive Ovstrokvsky, Thomas Mackley as William Barfee, Janette McManus as Logainne SchwartzandGrubenierre, Arina II as Marcy Park, Ross Cobbald as Leaf Coneybear and Joshua Dowen as Chip Tolentino.

The musical was conceived by Rebecca Fieldman, with music and lyrics by William Finn (Falsettos), a book by Rachel Sheinkin with additional material by Jay Reiss and it premiered on Broadway in 2005 and won two of it's six Tony Award Nominations, including Best Book. Since then it has spurred various productions including a US National Tour and a production in Australia. London's Donmar Warehouse gave the musical its UK premiere in 2011.

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