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The Broadway League Foundation has just announced the team of theatre professionals and industry experts who will serve as coaches and judges during the 17th annual Jimmy Awards®. Several Broadway stars will also make special guest appearances as presenters throughout the evening. Five-time Emmy® Award-nominated comedian, actor, writer, and podcast host Bowen Yang will host the ceremony taking place on Monday, June 22, 2026 at the Minskoff Theatre.
The 17th annual Jimmy Awards welcomes 12 coaches who will mentor the 116 high school students from across the country who have come to New York City for a chance to win the Jimmy Award for Best Performance by an Actor and Actress. This year’s coaches are: Lisa Brescia, Janet Dacal, Colin Hanlon, MaryAnn Hu, Adam Kantor, Lily Kaufmann, Adam J. Levy, Desi Oakley, Eliseo Román, Lawrence Stallings, Steven Telsey, and EJ Zimmerman.
The panel of judges for the 2026 Jimmy Awards is comprised of notable theatre professionals including Tony Award®-winning producers, prestigious casting experts, and industry leaders. Winners and finalists will be selected by Montego Glover, Kenny Leon, Joe Machota, Alecia Parker, Marc Platt, Tara Rubin, Thomas Schumacher, Bernard Telsey, and Lia Vollack. Preliminary judges who adjudicated and cast the nominees in the Character and Feature Groups included Kristian Charbonier, Stephanie Klapper, Sammy Lopez, Kevin Metzger-Timson, Dale Mott, T. Oliver Reid, and Rachel Sussman.
Throughout the evening Samuel Nelson III and Mason Alexander Park will be special guest presenters introducing various awards, musical numbers, and tributes.
The creative team for the 17th annual Jimmy Awards is led by Ceremony Director Van Kaplan and Music Supervisor Geoffrey Ko. Ko will also arrange and music direct the Opening Number, which is a tribute to the 2026 Broadway season directed and choreographed by Luis Salgado; the same team will also craft the Closing Number. The iconic Character Medleys will be directed by Kaplan and choreographed by Theo Lencicki, with Jon Bauerfeld, Wendy Bobbitt Cavett, Steven Cuevas, Michael A. Ferrara, and Noah Teplin providing musical arrangements featuring forty nominees performing selections from the roles they played in their high school productions.
Tony Award Nominee Charlotte d’Amboise, who has played “Roxie Hart” over the years in CHICAGO will teach a master class on CHICAGO choreography to these aspiring musical theatre performers from across the country. She will then spend a few days rehearsing with a group of 76 nominees. The final result will be a performance of CHICAGO’s iconic Kander & Ebb songs with legendary Bob Fosse choreography during the ceremony that will honor the Broadway show’s upcoming 30th Anniversary. CHICAGO’s Music Director John Bell has also created an original music arrangement for this special performance.
The 2026 Jimmy Awards creative team is rounded out by Lighting Designer Karen Spahn, Sound Designer Nick Borisjuk, Projection Designer Brad Peterson, Costume Coordinator Rebecca Ming, and Writer Jill Twiss.
The 2026 Jimmy Awards will stream for free online beginning at 7:30pm (Eastern) on Monday, June 22. Streaming links and information will be available at jimmyawards.com prior to the ceremony. The ceremony will remain available online for three days afterwards, through Thursday evening, June 25.
American Sign Language interpretation will be provided during the Jimmy Awards. For those interested in ASL interpretation, they can watch a live interpreter via an alternate YouTube stream. Live closed captions will be available through the “CC” feature on the primary YouTube stream. Links will be available closer to the ceremony.
Apples and Oranges Arts is the streaming and video production partner of the Jimmy Awards. The official media partner of the Jimmy Awards is W-TV.
The Jimmy Awards®/The National High School Musical Theatre Awards® (NHSMTA®) is a coast-to-coast celebration of outstanding student achievement, recognizing individual talent in vocal, dance, and acting performance. The program impacts over 180,000 students who participate in regional high school musical theatre competitions sponsored by presenters of Touring Broadway productions throughout the United States. The 2026 Jimmy Awards anticipates welcoming 116 nominees from 58 cities across the country as they make their debuts on a Broadway stage. Named for Broadway impresario James M. Nederlander, the Jimmy Awards has been the catalyst for more than $9,000,000 in educational scholarships.
Founded in 2009 by Nederlander Alliances LLC, Pittsburgh CLO, and Broadway Education Alliance (BEA), the mission of the NHSMTA is to advance a national conversation about the importance of arts education, honor teachers and their schools’ commitment to performing arts education, and contribute to the development of future arts workers and audiences for live performing arts in communities across America.
Presented by The Broadway League Foundation Inc., the NHSMTA invites two nominees from each local regional ceremony to New York City for a 10-day theatre intensive that includes coaching sessions, training, and rehearsals led by some of Broadway’s most accomplished professionals. Their experience will culminate in an extraordinary talent showcase performed live in front of an audience on a Broadway stage. For more information, please visit JimmyAwards.com.
