By Ernio Hernandez
18 Mar 2007

Lea Salonga

One lucky audience member will share the stage with Broadway stars Lea Salonga, Raúl Esparza and Brian Stokes Mitchell as well as the cast of The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee for "Broadway Night at the Bee" March 18.

"Can you spell S-T-A-G-E F-R-I-G-H-T? S-I-T-Z-P-R-O-B-E? S-O-N-D-H-E-I-M?," asks the announcement for the one-night-only event. "If so, this is the night for you to come to the Bee…" Current Broadway stars Esparza (Company) and Salonga (Les Miserables) will take a break from singing and try their hand at spelling along with Tony Award winner Mitchell (Kiss Me, Kate).

Directed by James Lapine (Sunday in the Park with George, Into the Woods) and created by William Finn, Rachel Sheinkin and Rebecca Feldman, Bee plays the Circle in the Square Theatre.

Spelling Bee was based on C-R-E-P-U-S-C-U-L-E, an original play created by Feldman and the comedy troupe The Farm. Composer-lyricist Finn provides the score to the musical incarnation with a book by librettist Sheinkin.

Original cast members Derrick Baskin, Deborah S. Craig, Lisa Howard, Jose Llana and Sarah Saltzberg are now joined by Jared Gertner, Barrett Foa, Greg Stuhr and Jessica Snow Wilson in the current cast.

The musical earned six Tony Award nominations, including Best Score, Best Book, Best Direction, Best Featured Actor (Dan Fogler) and Featured Actress (Celia Keenan Bolger) as well as a nomination for the top prize of Best Musical. Fogler and book writer Sheinkin took home awards for their work.

Spelling Bee, in its second year on the Broadway boards, has already played stints in San Francisco, Boston and Atlanta and currently enjoys an open-ended run at Chicago's Drury Lane Theatre Water Tower Place as well as a national tour.

For more information on the musical, visit www.spellingbeethemusical.com.