Jimmy Awards

 

[If you’ve never heard of the Jimmy Awards, you aren’t alone.  Until last June, I don’t think I’d ever heard of them—or, if I had, they didn’t register.  (I even asked my friend Kirk Woodward if he’d heard of the Jimmys, but he had no idea!).  Then two reports I saw on WABC television (New York City’s channel 7) on a newscast caught my attention.  I decided to check it out. 

[The Jimmys are officially the National High School Musical Theatre Awards.  They’re nicknamed for the Broadway producer and theater-owner James (“Jimmy”) M. Nederlander (1922-2016) because the Nederlander Organization co-founded the awards.  

[(The Nederlander Organization, founded in 1912 by David T. Nederlander in Detroit, and currently based in New York City, is one of the largest operators of live theaters and music venues in the United States.  It’s the second-largest theater-owner in New York City with nine of the 41 Broadway houses, behind the Shubert Organization with 17 and ahead of Jujamcyn Theaters with five. 

[(Ten Broadway theaters are owned or operated by individuals, or non-profit organizations such as the Lincoln Center Theatre [Vivian Beaumont Theatre], the Roundabout Theatre Company [Todd Haines Theatre, formerly the Selwyn; Studio 54; Stephen Sondheim Theatre, formerly Henry Miller’s Theatre], and the Manhattan Theatre Club [Samuel J. Friedman Theatre, formerly the Biltmore].

[(Nederlander owns or operates 21 theaters outside New York City, including three in London’s West End—the counterpart of New York’s Theatre District.  Its New York theaters include the famous Palace Theatre at 7th Avenue and West 47th Street, facing Times Square; see my post on Rick On Theater, “Playing (With) The Palace,” 18 May 2022.  The company’s other Broadway houses are: the Gershwin Theatre; Lena Horne Theatre, previously the Brooks Atkinson; Lunt-Fontanne Theatre; Marquis Theatre; Minskoff Theatre, home of the Jimmys; Nederlander Theatre, formerly the Billy Rose; Richard Rodgers Theatre, formerly the 46th Street Theatre; and Neil Simon Theatre, originally the Alvin.)]

The Jimmy Awards, dubbed by Van Kaplan (b. 1956), executive producer of the Pittsburgh Civic Light Opera, as “The Tonys . . . for high school,” are given annually in New York City to recognize musical theater performances by high school students in the United States (Rachel Syme, “Heard of the Jimmys?” New York Times 2 July 2017).  

The 2024 Jimmys were awarded in New York City on Monday, 24 June, the 15th annual ceremony, hosted by Emmy-, Tony-, and Grammy-nominated actor-singer Josh Groban (Tony nominations for Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812, 2016, and the 2023 revival of Sweeney Todd).

Only two principal awards are given each year, one for Best Performance by an Actress and one for Best Performance by an Actor.  All 2024 finalists received scholarships of $5,000.  (Over its history, the Jimmy Awards have given out more than $6 million in scholarships.  The scholarship amounts for each recipient vary from year to year.)  This year’s Best Performance winners received scholarships of $25,000 each.

Other awards accompanied by scholarships are also presented to nominees, such as Best Dancer, Best Performance in an Ensemble, Most Improved, Spirit of the Jimmy Award (given for embodying the spirit of the NHSMTA musical theater celebration), and Star of the Future Award; each of these winners receives $2,500 in scholarships in 2024. 

The National High School Musical Theatre Awards—they’re often referred to by the initials NHSMTA, but that’s so clumsy that I’ll mostly stick with “the Jimmy Awards” or “the Jimmys”—were inspired by the Gene Kelly Awards, given since 1991 by the Pittsburgh CLO to honor high school musical theater productions in the Pittsburgh area.

Van Kaplan pitched the idea of creating a national version of the Gene Kelly Awards to the Nederlander Organization.  Together with the CLO, the two organizations established the new award in 2009 and the first Jimmys were awarded in June of that year at New York University’s Skirball Center for the Performing Arts in Greenwich Village.  There were 32 contestants from 16 regions at the first awards ceremony.

In 2010, the awards were presented at Broadway’s Marquis Theatre, while all subsequent ceremonies were held at the Minskoff Theatre in the Theatre District; both theaters are owned by the Nederlander Organization. 

The 2020 ceremony was cancelled because of the COVID-19 pandemic and in 2021, the awards were presented virtually.  The live presentations returned to the Minskoff in 2022, and the Jimmy Awards celebrated its 15th Anniversary this year with many Jimmy alumni returning to the event to present the honors and celebrate with the winners and nominees.

The number of participating regional theaters has increased over time, partially because of the popularity generated by the videos of performances from the award show, as well as the three-part documentary series on the Public Broadcasting Service, Broadway or Bust (9, 16, and 23 September 2012), which followed that year’s Jimmy nominees as they prepared for the competition, from their hometown competitions to their debut on a Broadway stage at the Minskoff Theatre. 

Furthermore, TV shows like So You Think You Can Dance (Fox, 2002-16; ABC, 2018-present) and American Idol (Fox, 2005-present) have drawn attention to the performing arts from young people.  It probably didn’t hurt the spread of the word that some newly minted stars of stage and screen had received acknowledgment from regional theaters for their high school stage work. 

Actors like Anne Hathaway, a 2009 Oscar-nominee; Laura Benanti, a Tony-winner for musical theater in 2008; and Zachary Quinto, a 2011 Theatre World Awardee and a Drama Desk Award nominee, were spotlighted at the very time when NHSMTA was going national.

(Quinto’s recognition came from the Pittsburgh CLO when he won a Best Supporting Actor Gene Kelly Award in 1994 for his role as the Major General in The Pirates of Penzance.  He later won a passel of 2009 awards and nominations for his portrayal of Mr. Spock in the Star Trek remake.)

I imagine, too, that the Disney TV movie High School Musical (2006), with its popular star Zac Efron, followed by the franchise that comprised three sequels between 2008 and 2011, and the spin-off cable series (2019-23)—all from Disney—had an impact on this phenomenon as well. 

(In 2007, a stage adaptation of High School Musical premièred in Pittsburgh and became a trendy choice for high schools to mount.  The show didn’t play in New York City, but it went on a National Tour, playing in many Broadway League theaters and is listed in the Internet Broadway Database [High School Musical – Broadway Musical – Tour | IBDB], operated by the Research Department of the national trade association for the Broadway theater industry, the Broadway League, which co-produces the Tony Awards with the American Theatre Wing. 

(I don’t know, however, if High School Musical is on the NHSMTA list of Approved Musicals, which tends to eschew scripts specifically composed for child or teen performers.  The show’s not on the “2024 Jimmy Awards Qualifying Roles,” but neither is it on the list of shows and roles that were ineligible for the 2024 awards; see below.)

In 2014, the Broadway League Foundation, the charitable arm of the Broadway League, took over the management of the Jimmy awards from the founders.  Almost immediately thereafter, “some 15 new regional competitions like the St. Louis High School Musical Theater Awards [sic] popped up to feed talent into the Broadway showcase,” reported the New York Times (Syme).

The number of participating regional theaters increased over time, encompassing 43 regional competitions with 86 nominees by 2019.  In 2024, a total of 17 awards and scholarships were presented.  The ceremony featured 102 nominees selected from more than 100,000 participating students from 51 Regional Awards Programs (RAP) across the country.

At the 15th anniversary Jimmys, all the nominees got to sit in on the Tony Awards dress rehearsal.  (The Tony Awards were presented on Sunday, 16 June.)  In addition, 24 nominees saw their first Broadway show, 19 of the participants visited New York City for the first time, and three student actors experienced their first flight on an airplane.

The nominees are selected by an RAP competition in their areas.  Students can’t audition directly for the Jimmy Awards.  Nominees are selected based on the assessment of their performance of a Qualifying Role in a full-length high school production of an Approved Musical performed during the school year. 

(The criteria governing Qualifying Roles and Approved Musicals are laid out in the “Qualifying Shows and Roles” part of the “Participation” section on the Jimmy Awards website, Qualifying Shows and Roles | The National High School Musical Theatre Awards (jimmyawards.com).)

The RAP’s each designate one Best Performance by an Actor and one Best Performance by an Actress nominee.  The two nominees are then invited to compete at the Jimmy Awards in New York City in June.  (The 51 current Regional Awards Programs and the dates and locations of their awards presentations are listed at Regional Awards Programs | The National High School Musical Theatre Awards (jimmyawards.com).  There’s also information on what to do if there isn’t an RAP in your school’s area at Participation Guidelines | The National High School Musical Theatre Awards (jimmyawards.com).)

(Regional contests may give awards in other categories, such as Best Featured Actor or Best Supporting Actor, but only the two Leading Actor and Actress awardees may participate in the national Jimmy competition in New York.)

Each Regional Awards Program sends qualified judges to assess the productions presented by the participating schools.  All aspects of the shows, including acting, choreography, and design, and so on are judged on performance and production quality.  The Gene Kelly Awards served as a model for the regional competitions.  (The rules for the RAP’s are published at Rules and Regulations | The National High School Musical Theatre Awards (jimmyawards.com).)

Though the Jimmy Award is designated for one actor and one actress, American Theater magazine reports: “According to the Broadway League’s current policy, if a non-binary or gender-fluid actor were to compete at the Jimmy Awards, they ‘may choose to either select the category in which they wish to be adjudicated . . .  or they may be adjudicated based on the gender of the role they played’” (Elliott Folds, “What’s Gender Got to Do With Acting Awards?” 24 Feb. 2022, AMERICAN THEATRE | What’s Gender Got to Do With Acting Awards?).

Jimmy nominees participate in a 10-day intensive program in New York City that includes master classes, workshops, individual coaching, and group rehearsals for the Jimmy Awards ceremony.  In what the New York Times characterized as a “theatrical boot camp” (John Leland, “Starry Eyes, Souls Astir: Broadway’s Valiant Fledglings,” 29 June 2016), the student performers receive early wake-up calls and all-day coaching from Broadway pros.

“You think you are here to have fun,” announced Kent Gash, head of the NYU Tisch New Studio for Musical Theater (a partner in the NHSMTA program), when he welcomed the Jimmy nominees in 2018. “You are here to work” (Natalie Walker, “7 Days With the Most Talented Theater Teens in the Country,” Vulture [online platform of New York magazine] 7 July 2018, 7 Days With the 2018 Jimmy Awards Finalists (vulture.com)).

The teens stay in a New York University dormitory, and in addition to the coaching, attend yoga sessions and have meals together in a common area.  Throughout their stay in New York, the young student artists are in the care of chaperones (paid for by their RAP).  Those whose parents come to the city for the event are separated from their families until after the awards ceremony. 

This fosters an atmosphere of unity and camaraderie among the nominees, who come from cities and towns across the Unites States, and may be the beginning of a network of colleagues that can last until working theater careers are launched.  (The participation in and support for the annual event among Jimmy alumni is evidence that a network exists.) 

As longtime WABC-TV entertainment reporter Sandy Kenyon put it: “When it comes to future success after the Jimmy Awards, all that matters is that you are ‘in it,’ not that you ‘win it’” (“Past Jimmy Awards contestants like McKenzie Kurtz, Christian Thompson take the stage at 54 Below,” Eyewitness News [WABC-TV New York] 29 Jan. 2024, Past Jimmy Awards contestants like McKenzie Kurtz, Christian Thompson, Morgan Higgins take the stage at 54 Below - ABC7 New York (abc7ny.com)).

Casting director Tara Rubin, participating in the 2017 Jimmys (and judge this year), pointed out, “The participants have an opportunity to work with the best of Broadway, and also bond with other young people who share their dreams” (Marc Hershberg, “Jimmy Awards Jump-Start Broadway Careers,” Forbes 26 June 2017, Jimmy Awards Jump-Start Broadway Careers (forbes.com)).

At the 2016 awards, Sarah Chico, a junior from Tucson, observed that the nominees had formed close ties during the week.  “I don’t look at it as competition,” Chico explained, adding, “It’s being with a group of people who are not just from my little town.”

Tony Moreno, who won Best Performance by an Actor in 2017, spoke of finding community among a group of strangers, saying, “We were 74 people who had no idea who each other were” (Syme).  Still, they’d come together as a company and mounted a Broadway show.

At the 2018 event, Veronica Ballejos, a San Jose, California, nominee who’d previously confessed to a journalist, “I’m not good at making new friends, but . . . I’m trying!” later gushed, “I made so many new friends.  I was so scared I wouldn’t, but . . . this was . . . the best.  This was the best week of my life” (Walker).

Morgan Higgins, a finalist at the Jimmy Awards in 2015, asserted that “being part of the program is very helpful because it gives you community” (Kenyon).

When a TV newsman asked what they’d be “walking away with,” one of the student actors this year answered, “A ton of new friends . . . 101 new best friends and just the experience of getting to work like professionals in the industry” (Joelle Garguilo, “Broadway's future stars ready for the 15th annual Jimmy Awards on Monday,” Eyewitness News [WABC-TV New York] 21 June 2024, High School students across the country rehearsing ahead of the 15th annual Jimmy Awards - ABC7 New York (abc7ny.com)).

Included in the curriculum for the “boot camp” are dance classes taught by a Broadway choreographer and media training from a Broadway publicist to wise them up about publicity, both sought and unwanted.  All this goes on at the same time as the Jimmy nominees are rehearsing the awards show, which is the competition before the judges, who are casting directors, producers, and other representatives of the industry.

The coaches included actor-singers English Bernhardt, Janet Dacal, Colin Hanlon, MaryAnn Hu, Leonard Joseph, Adam Kantor, Telly Leung, Adam J. Levy, Desi Oakley, Eliseo Román, Steven Telsey, and EJ Zimmerman.

The nominees spend time with some of Broadway’s most accomplished professionals.  They work with a creative team, including actual Broadway directors and choreographers and they get to pick their brains.  In 2024, the teen performers sat with Rich and Tone Talauega, fraternal choreographers who staged the Michael Jackson moves in MJ The Musical (and shared the Best Choreography Tony with Christopher Wheeldon, who did the other dancing).

Tone Talauega said they were “[s]haring stories and anecdotes and little methods and techniques on what made us who we are in the industry” (Sonia Rincón, “Jimmy Award nominees get to see their faces on giant Times Square billboard,” Eyewitness News [WABC-TV New York] 19 June 2024, Jimmy Awards 2024: 100+ nominees get to see their faces on giant Times Square billboard - ABC7 New York (abc7ny.com)).

The RAP pays for the round-trip travel for its two nominees between the students’ home bases and New York City.  NHSMTA picks up the tab for nominees’ expenses in New York, including housing, meals, and other necessary expenses during the program.

During the week leading up to the awards ceremony, the nominees rehearse their performances for the show while they receive coaching from theater professionals.  On awards night, the show begins with an opening number, typically a mix of current and recent Broadway hits, involving all nominees.  

That’s followed by a series of “showcase medleys” in which several nominees appear in the costumes they wore for the roles they performed in their school musical.  Each nominee sings a short solo, while the remaining performers act as backup singers and dancers.

During the intermission that follows the opening, a panel of judges who evaluated and cast the nominees into performance groups, selects about six to eight finalists.  In 2024, the preliminary judges included actor-director Gabriel Barre, casting director Kristian Charbonier, casting director Stephanie Klapper, producer Sammy Lopez, casting director Kevin Metzger-Timson, and producer Dale Mott.

During the show’s second half, the finalists each perform a solo, after which a second panel of judges selects the two winners, one male-presenting actor and one female-presenting actor.  Then the two winners are announced. 

This year, these Tony Award-winning producers, award-winning casting experts, and industry leaders included actress and singer Montego Glover, actor James Monroe Iglehart, director Kenny Leon, performer and agent Joe Machota, composer Alan Menken, producer Marc Platt, singer and actor T. Oliver Reid, casting director Tara Rubin, Executive Vice-President of the Nederlander Organization Nick Scandalios, producer (and currently President of the Disney Theatrical Group) Thomas Schumacher, casting director (and co-founder of Off-Broadway’s MCC Theater) Bernard Telsey, and record executive Lia Vollack.

(There is a full run-down of the 2024 Jimmy Awards ceremony in “2024 Jimmy Awards field report” by David Carliner at 2024 Jimmy Awards field report - by David Carliner (substack.com).  The whole week in 2018 is detailed in Natalie Walker’s “7 Days With the Most Talented Theater Teens in the Country,” cited above.  Both postings include extensive personal commentary.)

The Jimmy Awards also honors high school theater teachers, presenting the Inspiring Teacher Award, given to “teachers who have been nominated by their students and chosen by a selection committee of Broadway League members as recognition of their roles in providing valuable guidance and encouragement for their students who excelled during last year’s Jimmy Awards.”  

2024’s teaching award was presented in memory of Luigi Caiola (1959-2023), an eight-time Tony Award-winning producer, real-estate developer, and philanthropist, part of whose mission in life was to nurture and support new talent.  This year’s recipients were Jacqueline McLean, Le Roy Jr. Senior High School in Rochester, New York, and Paul Fillingim, Ronald Reagan High School in San Antonio, Texas.

Each year, the Jimmy Awards also invites select Student Reporters from participating Regional Awards Programs to cover Jimmy Awards events through social media.  The 2024 Jimmy Awards Student Reporter Initiative welcomed Nicole Scimeca from Broadway In Chicago Illinois High School Musical Theatre Awards and Richard “Ricky” Ragazzo from the Tommy Tune Awards of Houston, Texas.

The two high-schoolers are aspiring journalists who were selected following a nationwide submissions process and provided fans an inside look at the final preparations for the evening performance.  They also conducted interviews with the 2024 Best Performance winners following the awards ceremony.  As part of the experience, they were granted a special visit to the WABC studios to observe the behind-the-scenes production of an upcoming news segment.  (WABC is a sponsor of the Jimmy Awards.)

As of this spring, 67 Jimmy alumni, nominees, finalists, and winners, have performed on Broadway or in a National Tour.  Among these are Reneé Rapp, 2018 winner who was most recently seen on screen as Regina George in the movie musical adaptation of Mean Girls (2024) and also starred in Mean Girls on Broadway (2016-20); Andrew Barth Feldman, the other 2018 Jimmy winner who made his Broadway début in 2019 in the title role of Dear Evan Hansen; Casey Likes, a 2019 finalist currently starring as Marty McFly in Back to the Future and made his Broadway début in 2022 as William Miller in Almost Famous; and Justin Cooley, a 2021 finalist who made his Broadway début in Kimberly Akimbo, earning a 2023 Tony nomination for Best Featured Actor in a Musical.

Among current Broadway performers, Jimmy alumni include: Sofia Deler, a 2017 winner, who’s currently understudying Holly in Stereophonic; Tony Moreno, a 2017 winner who’s a Swing in The Book of Mormon; Eva Noblezada, a 2013 finalist playing Daisy in The Great Gatsby; and Josh Strobl, a 2016 winner who’s currently understudying Ponyboy Curtis and Johnny in The Outsiders and previously understudied three roles in Dear Evan Hansen, including Evan Hansen.  (These partial lists don’t include the Jimmy alumni who are or have been on National Tours of Broadway shows.) 

Several past participants in the Jimmys have returned as guests or presenters, including this year.  Andrew Barth Feldman, for instance, introduced a video segment highlighting the nominees’ week in New York City.  Feldman is currently starring as Seymour in Little Shop of Horrors that opened Off-Broadway in 2019.  The Jimmy show also spotlighted 2021 Jimmy Awards Finalist Justin Cooley, who, with Tony-winning musical actress Victoria Clark (2 wins, 3 additional nominations), introduced a medley of songs saluting Broadway shows that have featured Jimmy Awards alumni throughout the years.

In 2023, Jimmy alumna and two-time Tony-nominee Eva Noblezada presented the Week-in-Review video.  She made her Broadway début in 2017 with Miss Saigon and went on to appear as Eurydice in Hadestown from 2019 to 2023 and as Daisy Buchanan in The Great Gatsby from 2024 to the present.

McKenzie Kurtz, a 2013 and 2015 Jimmy nominee, introduced the 2023 Tribute to Touring number honoring National Tours’ contributions to the Jimmy Awards and to Touring Broadway throughout the years.  She made her début on Broadway as a replacement for Glinda in Wicked from 2023 to March of this year.  Kurtz has also appeared on Broadway as Anna in Frozen (2020) and as Cassandra in the original cast of The Heart of Rock and Roll in April though June of this year.

(Touring Broadway is the designation of the Broadway League to identify touring productions of Broadway plays in which the content, including the text and production values, is the same as those in New York City with differences only in the set, modified for traveling, and the cast.  The term covers both the productions and the agencies that organize and present the tours across the country.)

This year’s Best Performance by an Actress and Best Performance by an Actor Jimmy winners, both 18, were Gretchen Shope, representing the Sutton Foster Awards of East Lansing, Michigan, and Damson Chola, Jr., from the Broadway Dallas High School Musical Theatre Awards in Dallas, Texas.

Shope is from Midland, Michigan, and made her first NHSMTA appearance at the Minskoff in her character medley as Alice from the play for which she was nominated, Alice by Heart (music by Duncan Sheik, lyrics by Steven Sater, book by Sater with Jessie Nelson; inspired by Lewis Carroll’s 1865 novel Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland; originally presented by London’s Royal National Theatre in 2012; MCC Theatre, Off-Broadway, 2019).  

For her solo performance, Shope earned a standing ovation with her rendition of “The Music That Makes Me Dance” from Funny Girl (score by Jule Styne, lyrics by Bob Merrill, book by Isobel Lennart; premièred on Broadway, 1964; based on the life and career of comedian and Broadway star Fanny Brice).  In the fall, she’ll be attending Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio, and double-majoring in marketing and musical theater.

Chola’s hometown is Cleburne, Texas.  In his character medley, he performed a bashful Seymour, the role for which he received his Jimmy nomination from Little Shop of Horrors (music by Alan Menken, lyrics and book by Howard Ashman; based on the 1960 black-comedy film directed by Roger Corman; world première Off-Off-Broadway at the WPA Theatre, 1982; transferred Off-Broadway to the Orpheum Theatre later in 1982).  

In a change of pace for his solo performance, Chola triumphed with “Make Them Hear You” from Ragtime (music by Stephen Flaherty, lyrics by Lynn Ahrens, book by Terrence McNally; based on the 1975 novel of the same name by E. L. Doctorow; premièred at the Ford Centre for the Performing Arts, now the Meridian Arts Centre, Toronto, in 1996; U.S. première at the Shubert Theatre, Los Angeles in 1997; Broadway production opened in 1998 at the Ford Center for the Performing Arts, now the Lyric Theatre).  Chola will be attending the Carnegie Mellon University School of Drama in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in September.

[The mailing address and contact information of the National High School Musical Theatre Awards are:

NHSMTA
℅ The Broadway League Foundation
729 Seventh Avenue, 5th Floor
New York, NY 10019

Phone: (212) 764-1122

E-mail (general inquiries): jimmyawards@broadway.org

[The organization’s website URL is: Home | The National High School Musical Theatre Awards (jimmyawards.com).  There are several different pages—some of which I included in the post above—with detailed information and instructions about applying for participation in the Jimmy Awards program, starting a Regional Awards Program, and other aspects of the NHSMTA.

[There are also many periodical articles on the Jimmys, including multiple reports in American Theatre, the New York Times, Playbill, and WABC-TV, plus coverage of RAP’s in local news outlets.]