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TUTS Opens The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee in Houston With Kevin Cahoon, Directed by Original Choreographer Dan Knechtges

Knechtges returns to a show he helped launch on Broadway in a homecoming run that leans into audience participation.

Overview

  • The Theatre Under the Stars production runs October 21–November 2 at the Hobby Center in Houston.
  • TUTS artistic director Dan Knechtges, who choreographed the original Broadway staging, directs and choreographs this new mounting.
  • Tony nominee and Houston native Kevin Cahoon plays Vice Principal Douglas Panch, guiding nightly audience volunteers in the bee’s improv segments.
  • A highlights video released by TUTS offers a first look at the cast, including Mark Ivy, Michael Alonzo, Gemini Quintos, Julia Krohn, JD Houston, Marco Camacho, Abigail Bensman, and Adell Ehrhorn, with John Ryan Del Bosque and Rebecca Russell as understudies.
  • The creative team features music director Stephen W. Jones, lighting designer Hudson Davis, sound designer Andrew Harper, and costume designer Colleen Grady, with casting by Calleri Jensen Davis Casting and Laura Peete, as a separate New York revival starts November 7 at New World Stages.