Celia Keenan-Bolger Reunited With Her Spelling Bee Costars to Deliver a Tearful Epilogue

On July 6, the original Broadway stars of William Finn and Rachel Sheinkin's musical The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee reunited for a one-night-only concert. The benefit event raised over $200,000 for the Actors Fund's Phyllis Newman Women's Health Initiative and served as a memorial for Andrea "Spook" Testani Gordon, the late production stage manager of the original Broadway and off-Broadway production. Emotions, which ran high all evening, came to head when original Olive Ostrovsky Celia Keenan-Bolger, who had to bow out of the event due to the demands of new motherhood, came to the stage. Bolger and her castmates struggled to hold back tears as she delivered her character's epilogue, which was rife with new meaning.