“We had somebody misspell ‘cow’ a few nights ago for the first time ever,” says Lilli Cooper. “I think he said C-A-W. And then we rang the bell, and when he heard the bell, he was like, what? I think he was in shock that he had misspelled it himself.”
Welcome to the “25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee” revival, running off-Broadway at the New World Stages theater, where the stage has been transformed to look like a middle school gymnasium. The stacked ensemble cast includes Tony-nominated theater stars like Cooper, nominated in 2019 for “Tootsie,” former “Boop!” lead Jasmine Amy Rogers and “Kimberly Akimbo” breakout Justin Cooley, along with “Glee” star Kevin McHale and other emerging talent.
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“The way that each actor plays their role is just so deliciously perfect and everyone is so funny,” says Cooper of her costars, convincingly aged down to adolescents onstage. “Even on stage, we’re making each other laugh all the time.”
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Cooper grew up in New York, but was just starting her own career during the show’s original Broadway run in 2005. “I actually never got a chance to see it on Broadway,” says Cooper, who as a teenager was one of the original cast members of “Spring Awakening.” “I had definitely heard the album a few times, so I was loosely familiar with the music,” she adds. “It’s a big responsibility to remount a show that is so loved, because you want to do it justice and you want everybody to love it.”
Cooper stars as the spelling bee’s emcee and former champion Rona Lisa Peretti, a role originated by Lisa Howard. Howard, along with fellow original cast member Jesse Tyler Ferguson, were both in the audience for the revival’s opening night last month.
“It’s been 20 years since it was last on Broadway. We’re not trying to replicate it identically from when it was originally on Broadway,” says Cooper. “We’re trying to bring it into the now and what it means in 2025 for a young, new, fresh audience.”
The cast also includes four audience members each night, selected right before the performance and brought onstage to join the spelling competition — which is always rigged, whether the word is “cow” or much more obscure.
“Really the last cast member is the audience,” says Cooper. “That is true for a lot of shows, especially comedies, but particularly this show, because we quite literally have audience members as part of our show.”
As the show’s emcee, Cooper is responsible for coming up with introductions for each guest speller.
“It kind of takes the audience by surprise that we’re able to come up with these very specific, unique descriptions of people,” she says. “People after the show ask me, are you being fed something in your ear? Do people write those quips before you walk on stage? And I’m like, no, they’re completely from me,” she adds. “It’s kind of my opportunity to roast total strangers and get away with it.”
Sometimes those people aren’t exactly strangers — celebrity guest spellers have included Daniel Radcliffe, there to support his former “Merrily We Roll Along” costar Leana Rae Concepcion, and Cooper’s father, Tony-winning actor Chuck Cooper, during the show’s opening night.
“It’s kind of a very insider crowd, so the whole audience knew that he was my dad and that he’s a Broadway actor,” says Cooper. “When I first saw him, I said, ‘oh, you look familiar.’ And the audience loved that.”
Audiences are loving the show overall, which has extended its run through mid-April.
“A lot of shows come and go really fast, and you don’t really get to live in that role and in the storytelling long enough to feel comfortable,” says Cooper. “It’s a really exciting concept to have several months to get so comfortable in the show.”
Cooper’s hopeful for future extensions, and more unexpected guest spellers. And in the short-term, she’s excited for audiences to enjoy the show during the holiday season.
“It feels like a joyous, lighthearted fun show to experience, especially for families,” says Cooper. “And I feel like we really need that right now. We need some lighthearted stuff in our lives these days.”