James Van Der Beek’s Daughters Steal the Spotlight with Emotional Song at Dawson’s Creek Reunion

James Van Der Beek’s wife, Kim­ber­ly, and their six chil­dren stepped in on his behalf at the Dawson’s Creek Class Reunion in New York City, after ill­ness pre­vent­ed the actor from attend­ing. The spe­cial event, held on Sep­tem­ber 22 at the Richard Rodgers The­atre, was designed both to raise mon­ey for F Can­cer and can­cer research, and to hon­or Van Der Beek, who revealed last year that he had been diag­nosed with stage 3 col­orec­tal can­cer.

A Proud Fam­i­ly Arrival

Kim­ber­ly was joined by daugh­ters Olivia (14), Annabel (11), Emil­ia (9), Gwen­dolyn (6) and sons Joshua (13) and Jere­mi­ah (2) for the emo­tion­al evening. The fam­i­ly greet­ed fans as they arrived, walk­ing past a long line of atten­dees eager­ly wait­ing to enter the the­ater. Kim­ber­ly record­ed the moment on her phone, telling the crowd it was “for James,” who was recov­er­ing at home.

Fans respond­ed warm­ly, cheer­ing, offer­ing well-wish­es for James’s health, and express­ing excite­ment for the night ahead. The family’s pres­ence quick­ly became one of the most touch­ing parts of the event.

The Cast Reunion

Inside the the­ater, beloved cast mem­bers Michelle Williams, Katie Holmes, Joshua Jack­son, Mary Beth Peil, John Wes­ley Shipp, Mary-Mar­garet Humes, Nina Repe­ta, Kerr Smith, Mered­ith Mon­roe, and Busy Philipps reunit­ed on stage for a live read­ing of the show’s pilot episode. The nos­tal­gic per­for­mance not only cel­e­brat­ed the icon­ic WB dra­ma but also car­ried a deep­er mean­ing, as it was ded­i­cat­ed to sup­port­ing Van Der Beek in his health bat­tle.

A Sur­prise Musi­cal Moment

Lat­er in the evening, the audi­ence was treat­ed to an unfor­get­table high­light. As the cast gath­ered to sing the show’s icon­ic theme song, “I Don’t Want to Wait” by Paula Cole, two of James and Kimberly’s daugh­ters stepped for­ward for sur­prise solos.

Olivia, 14, began the song on her own, her voice fill­ing the the­ater as the cast and audi­ence looked on proud­ly. Moments lat­er, Emil­ia, 9, joined in, their har­monies draw­ing thun­der­ous applause from the crowd. Soon, the rest of the Van Der Beek fam­i­ly joined the cast on stage, turn­ing the moment into a joy­ous, multi­gen­er­a­tional sin­ga­long.

Kimberly’s Reflec­tions

Fol­low­ing the event, Kim­ber­ly shared heart­felt posts on her Insta­gram Sto­ries, thank­ing the orga­niz­ers, the cast, and the fans who helped make the evening so mean­ing­ful. She reflect­ed on how the reunion “made so many of the kids’ dreams come true” and how deeply the love and sup­port in the the­ater was felt by her fam­i­ly.

Though James Van Der Beek could not be there in per­son, the evening became a mov­ing cel­e­bra­tion of his career, his lega­cy, and the resilience of his fam­i­ly — with his daugh­ters’ pow­er­ful per­for­mance leav­ing one of the most mem­o­rable marks of the night.