Ohio Theatre Shows Support for High School Cast of Canceled 25TH ANNUAL PUTNAM COUNTY SPELLING BEE

As BroadwayWorld reported last week, an Ohio high school production of The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee was canceled when the Cardinal Schools Board of Education deemed the musical "not family-friendly." 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 decision was met with outrage on social media and gained the attention of one of the show's original stars, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, who spoke up about it on Instagram: "They have given many reasons but all of them are obvious and thinly veiled covers of some bigger things."

Since then, Avenue Arts, a theatre company in Canton Ohio that just concluded its run of the show, welcomed the Cardinal High School cast to one of their performances, at which they invited the students onstage. They wrote: "Special thanks to the students at Cardinal High School for being our honored guests at last evenings performance. We continue to stand in solidarity with these students as they fight to get their show back! we couldn't be more proud of these young actors as they continue to use their voices to do amazing things!"

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 score by William Finn.

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