This press release details the changes made to the content of THE 25TH ANNUAL PUTNAM COUNTY SPELLING BEE when Bill and Chelsea were in the audience:
Monday, June 4, 2007 -- On Friday, June 1, BILL CLINTON and CHELSEA CLINTON
celebrated DOROTHY RODHAM'S (Hilary's mother) 88th birthday by taking her to
the Broadway musical The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. Since the
show allows for an element of improvisation, the cast, lead by humorist MO
ROCCA, couldn't help but pay tribute to their special guests with a few
Clinton-inspired jokes.
1) One of the audience volunteer spellers was asked to spell the following
word and was given its definition and sentence to help with the spelling:
Word: VERMEIL
Definition: gold-plated or gilded silver, often used in formal table
settings.
Sentence: Had he known that his official duties would include selecting a
china pattern to match the vermeil tableware, Billy never would have
supported his wife's candidacy.
2) Later in the show, the character Logainne Schwartzandgrubineirre, she of
the two gay dads and easily the most liberal of the characters, launched
into her nightly diatribe:
"This bee is almost as unruly as President Bush! Just yesterday, he
suggested that we all reduce our greenhouse gas emissions, and then
proceeded to let out a whole bunch of hot air into the atmosphere! This
morning, while my dads were reading me the NY Times over a glass of wheat
grass, I got inspired to write this limerick:
There once was a President named Bush -
He spoke from the depths of his tush -
He leaked information,
He spied on his nation,
And his English was barely a mush!
My dads think I should send that into the New Yorker, but I'd rather just
wait for President Bush to wiretap my phone so I can recite it for him
personally!!"
3) And finally, in the show's epilogue, Logainne says "she grows up to
become the Secretary of Education under President Chelsea Clinton," which
got a huge round of applause.