Barrett Foa, currently appearing on Broadway as Princeton/Rod in
Avenue Q, will assume the role of Leaf Coneybear in the Broadway production of the Tony Award-winning musical comedy
The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee at Circle in the Square (50th Street between Broadway and Eighth Avenue), beginning Tuesday, July 25.
Jesse Tyler Ferguson will play his final performance as Leaf Coneybear on Sunday, July 23. This fall, Ferguson will appear on the new CBS sitcom "The Class," created by David Crane ("Friends") and Jeffrey Klarik ("Mad About You"), and directed by multiple Emmy winner James Burrows.
Foa is currently appearing as Princeton/Rod in
Avenue Q on Broadway. He also appeared on Broadway in the original cast of
Mamma Mia! His Off-Broadway credits include
Godspell (Jesus, 2000 cast recording) and
Cupid and Psyche (Cupid). His many regional credits include
Much Ado About Nothing (Claudio) at Hartford Stage and Shakespeare Theatre, D.C. (dir.
Mark Lamos);
Camelot (Mordred) at Paper Mill Playhouse;
Kept in its world premiere at TheatreWorks in CA (dir.
Scott Schwartz); the American premiere of
Cameron Mackintosh's
Just So at North Shore;
The Fantasticks (Matt) at St. Louis Muny;
Gypsy (Tulsa) at Weston Playhouse; and
Children of Eden (Abel/Ham) and
The Sound of Music (Rolf), both at Music Theatre of Wichita.
"In
The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, six young people in the throes of puberty, overseen by grown-ups who barely managed to escape childhood themselves, learn that winning isn't everything and that losing doesn't necessarily make you a loser in this funny, tender and sardonic musical," state press notes.
The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee is currently in its second year on Broadway. Sit-down productions of
Spelling Bee are currently playing in critically acclaimed engagements in San Francisco at the Post Street Theatre and in
Chicago at the Drury Lane Theatre Water Tower Place. A national touring production will be launched this fall, which means that there will be four North American companies of
Spelling Bee playing concurrently.
The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, conceived by
Rebecca Feldman, features music and lyrics by Tony Award-winner
William Finn (
Falsettos, Elegies) and a Tony Award-winning book by
Rachel Sheinkin, with additional material by
Jay Reiss.
When he joins
The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee as Leaf Coneybear, Foa will be featured with
Derrick Baskin as Mitch Mahoney,
Deborah S. Craig as Marcy Park, Josh Gad as William Barfee,
Lisa Howard as Rona Lisa Peretti,
Celia Keenan-Bolger as Olive Ostrovsky,
Jose Llana as Chip Tolentino,
Sarah Saltzberg as Logainne Schwartzandgrubenierre and Greg Stuhr as Douglas Panch.
The show performs at Circle in the Square (50th St., between Broadway & 8th) on the following schedule: Tuesdays at 7pm; Wednesdays through Saturdays at 8 PM, Saturday matinees at 2 PM; Sundays at 3 and 7:30 PM. Tickets are available through Telecharge at 212-239-6200 (or at
www.telecharge.com), or at the Circle in the Square box office.
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