James Van Der Beek appears on video during ‘Dawson’s Creek’ reunion event

Despite being too ill to attend the reunion of the “Dawson’s Creek” cast in person, James Van Der Beek made an appearance by video to mark the occasion.

Kaite Homes, Michelle Williams and Joshua Jackson had taken the stage with the rest of the show’s cast to do a table read of the pilot episode of “Dawson’s Creek.”

The show aired from 1998 to 2003 and “followed Dawson and his friends as they navigated life, love and loss throughout their teenage years,” as US Weekly described the show.

In the place of Van Der Beek was “Hamilton” creator Lin-Manuel Miranda, who took the stage at the home of his hit Broadway show, the Richard Rodgers Theatre.

The show had another “Hamilton” connection. It was narrated by Renée Elise Goldsberry, who played Angelica in the Tony Award-winning musical.

Van Der Beek appeared in a video before and after the table read, saying before the show, “I can’t believe I don’t get to hug my cast mates. I wanted to stand on that stage and thank every single person in this theater for being here tonight,” Variety reported.

After the reading was done, Van Der Beek returned.

“Now, nobody in their right mind would ever draw a parallel between the two, but one very big similarity between Dawson and the “Phantom of the Opera” is that both of them were faced with the reality that the woman they loved truly loved somebody else, said, ‘Go to him. Go to him now before I change my mind.’ Only one resulted in a crying face meme,” he said.

Then Norm Lewis performed “The Music of the Night” from the aforementioned musical.

Steven Spielberg, who was Dawson’s hero in the series, also appeared on screen, saying, “Dawson, we made it. Maybe someday, I will get to have a Dawson’s closet.”

Goldsberry wrapped up the show by singing “I Don’t Want To Wait,” and was joined not only by the cast but also the lead actor’s daughters.

The cancer charity and Van Der Beek benefit show was the idea of Williams, who is married to “Hamilton” director Thomas Kail.

Van Der Beek was diagnosed with stage III colon cancer, US Magazine reported.

“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… 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,” he announced on Instagram before the performance. “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.”

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