They’re all going back to the creek — except Dawson.
James Van Der Beek announced on Sunday that he will not be able to participate in Monday’s “Dawson’s Creek Class Reunion” charity event, set to reunite every major player from the beloved original series for a live reading of its pilot episode.
“This is the evening I’d been looking forward to MOST since my angel Michelle Williams said she was putting it together, way back in January,” Van Der Beek shared on Instagram. “So you can imagine how gutted I was when two stomach viruses conspired to knock me out of commission and keep me grounded at the worst possible moment.”‘
The actor who played the title role of the good-hearted dreamer Dawson Leery across the series’ full run on The WB noted that, “Despite every effort… I won’t get to be there. I won’t get to stand on that stage and thank every soul in the theater for showing up for me, and against cancer, when I needed it most.”
In his stead, “The role of ‘Dawson,’ usually played by James Van Der Beek… Will be played by Lin-Manuel Miranda.”
The “Dawson’s Creek Class Reunion” was organized as a fundraiser for the charity F Cancer, with Van Der Beek as its central focus.
In November, the 48-year-old announced that he had been diagnosed with stage 3 colorectal cancer.
“There’s reason for optimism, and I’m feeling good,” he said at the time. Though in April, fellow Dawson’s Creek alum Joshua Jackson noted that “the girls,” meaning Michelle Williams, Katie Holmes, and Busy Philipps, “all got together and were like, ‘We need to do something to help this guy out.'” The whole gang felt that more was warranted to support Van Der Beek through a “truly terrible” time.
Regarding Van Der Beek’s “understudy,” the actor gushed over the Pulitzer Prize, Tony, and Emmy-winning star and creator of Hamilton as a “ridiculously overqualified replacement who would have been #1 on my wishlist (had I ever dreamed he’d be available). Someone my kids would definitely consider an upgrade over me… Plus, he already knows how to get to the theater. So that’s convenient.”
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The pilot episode of Dawson’s Creek premiered in January 1998, introducing the world to four teens from the fictional, quaint harbor town of Capeside, Mass. Through six seasons, Van Der Beeks’ Dawson, Williams’ Jen Lindley, Holmes’ Joey Potter, and Jackson’s Pacey Whitter built up trusting relationships, crashed them down, fell in love, broke up, and experimented with others before Joey and Pacey eventually rode off into the sunset as the series’ true endgame couple.
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The “Dawson’s Creek Class Reunion” now stars Miranda, Williams, Holmes, Jackson, Phillips, Mary Beth Peil, John Wesley Shipp, Mary-Margaret Humes, Nina Repeta, Kerr Smith, and Meredith Monroe.
The charity fundraiser on behalf of F Cancer, which provides education and resources to those fighting cancer as well as caretakers, will be held on Monday in New York City at the Richard Rodgers Theatre.
