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For a certain group of musical theater fans, Christmas comes in June.
From left, rehearsing the opening number at Tisch; Max Pink, age 17 and John Zamborsky, age 18, taking a break after opening act rehearsal.
This Christmas has everything yours does.
It has beloved songs.
It involves pilgrimages across great distances.
From left, rehearsing the opening number at Tisch; Max Pink, age 17 and John Zamborsky, age 18, taking a break after opening act rehearsal.
It is the Jimmy Awards, and it is the most wonderful time of the year.
What are the Jimmy Awards?
you ask, like an innocent child.
They are the high-school Tonys.
During the intermission, a judging panel of respected theater artists select eight finalists to present solos.
From these solo performances two winners one male-identifying actor and one female-identifying actor are determined.
Lets rewind to thosemedleys, though, because they have rightfully gained a cult following over the years.
Each Jimmys participant is nominated based on a specific performance they have given in their school show that year.
The medleys are the highly addictive solution.
The Jimmys medleys are musical-theater crossover heaven, carefully arranged and conducted by mad genius music director Michael Moricz.
Who better to go behind the scenes of the Jimmys?
Who better to serve as a cautionary tale?
I received the golden ticket to a week of Jimmys glory, and kept a diary of the experience.
A full decade too late, but I made it!
Or as I quickly learn they are to be called thenominees.
Rehearsing the opening number at the Minskoff Theatre.
My lack of a red T-shirt is the SOLE thing preventing my passing myself off as a Jimmys nominee.
His cohort in this endeavor stands beside him Kiesha Lalama, choreographer.
Im the good cop, shes the bad cop, Kaplan jokes.
You think you are here to have fun, Gash announces, methodically scanning the room.
You are here towork.And pay!
The finalists introduce themselves by name, hometown, and the role and show that landed them here.
Two Millie Dillmounts (Millies Dillmount?).
E-loy-zah Doooliuhl, the Aht-ful Doodgah).
The talk wraps up, and the nominees are dismissed to go over the music for the opening number.
Yes, yes, sweet cherub, the time has indeed come to set aside childish things.
Sensing the general confusion in the room, she levels with everyone: Look, Im insane.
But youll thank me when you see the video on YouTube.
Everybody wants to be an OMG GOALS, nobody wants to be an lol … me.
EVENING: A staff member walks across the room carrying a Duane Reade bag overflowing with snacks.
Every eye goes to this Dorito cornucopia.
A mirage in the desert.
Lalama is quiet as she ponders her next move.
From the back line the ancestral home ofmypeople, the Non-Dancers comes a small voice, hopeful and firm.
The room explodes with applause.
They are taking in an early dinner at Sardis before seeingDear Evan Hansen.
Rehearsal attire is the Great Equalizer everyone looks roughly the same in sweats, yoga pants, and T-shirts.
I am almost too intimidated to approach her, but when we chat, she is warm and open.
I cant believe I get to be here, she says wistfully.
There arent a lot of these opportunities where Im from.
From left, Andrew Barth Feldman, age 16, Trey Caperton, age 17, and Mark Mitrano, age 18. Later that night, Feldman won the prize for Best Actor for his performance as Frank Abagnale Jr. inCatch Me if You Can. Right, choreographer Kiesha Lalama hugs Hannah Kanter, age 18, who won Best Performance in an Ensemble for her role as Velma Kelley fromChicago.
I just wanna soak everything up.
I wanna learn everything I can learn.
Its a lot for a Wednesday happy hour where I havent even been drinking.
I dont know anybody at all, but … Im trying!
Such is the plight of theshytheater kid.
He exudes a confidence I know well, for it is the confidence of the Musical Theater Straight.
The horns are intense, he says.
I got stopped by airport security on the way here because of them.
They all have eyes on the prize or, to be less cynical, eyes on The Experience.
Every nominee I broach the subject with offers some variation of Im focusing on my career right now.
Close to midnight, my No.
1 from last years Jimmys in the audience today at the Q&A.
Scenes from the performance. Clockwise from top left, John Zamborsky, age 18, performs as Galileo inWe Will Rock You, Garrett Morris, age 17 as Quasimodo fromThe Hunchback of Notre Dame, Natalie Doppelt as Sister Mary Robert fromSister Act, the eight finalists for Best Performer.
Have you happened to clock him?
And ifso, what show is he representing this year?
And if itsnothim … thats … a shame, honestly.
is indeedone of the dueling Sweeney Todds from the 2017 Jimmys.
He instantaneously replies: hey out me.
THURSDAY MEDLEYS REHEARSAL
AFTERNOON: I WATCH THE STAGING OF TWO MEDLEYS TODAY.
Andrew Barth Feldman, age 16 and Reneé Rapp, age 18 after their wins for Best Male Performance and Best Female Performance.
Youre not doing anything right now, Lalama says to one boy as he rehearses his solo.
During this part, I had a cane, he responds.
Did you bring it?
He shakes his head sheepishly.
Theyve all brought their costumes, but props can be forgotten!
Their stage managers cant follow them everywhere!
Alternate choreography is worked out, but only after the room becomes theKey & Peelesweating sketchfor a few minutes.
I can sense when theres danger for power struggles.
You all listen to Mark.
You have questions about the choreography, you defer to Mark.
Hes a dancer and a half, and hes been here before.
He knows what I am thinking.
Marks eyes go wide.
He seems simultaneously flattered and terrified.
EVENING: The second group of boys enter the rehearsal studio.
You have never seen so many scarves in the month of June.
RebootSmashso these boyscan costume Debra Messing.
I soon understand why: this group is SING.
And they need to PROTECT.
Every downtown Duane Reade is quaking.
FRIDAY PRESS REHEARSAL/COACHINGS
MORNING: Press day!
The group is running through the opening number when I arrive.
AFTERNOON: Students prep their solo pieces with their coaches for the final time.
The scarves have multiplied; there seem to be more scarves than human beings now.
The scarves will soon gain sentience.
I look forward to serving my soft-knit overlords.
They can expect my full cooperation and obedience in the revolution to come.
Kaplan shouts, QUIET!
… back up your VOICES!
It is 9:45 in the a.m. and these young women are BELTING.
They are CRYING WHILE BELTING.
They are OFFERING OPERATIC HIGH Cs IN THE MIDST OF BELTING.
OnlyoneGimme Gimme andoneAstonishing.
Wow, the times, they are a-changin.
And … one last time?
I cant put my finger on it, but I just feel like youre mad at me!
Thats the RBF, Duffy replies.
The nominees giggle quietly.
A Jimmys bad boy, to be sure.
SPEAKING OF THE BOYS!
SUNDAY PRELIMINARY JUDGING
On Sunday, nominees perform in front of the judging panel.
By nightfall, I am experiencing empty nest syndrome.
11:30 a.m.: Lunch break.
2:30 p.m.: Nerves fray as the day progresses.
She muses, I have to sing it powerful.
The chaos is individualized and contained; both manic and focused.
Then a voice pipes up behind me: I can do John Legend!
I turn and find diminutive sophomore (!!!)
Andrew Barth Feldman from New York City.
She is supposed to deliver a few spoken lines introducing a section fromMary Poppins.
But then, something wonderful happens.
George Clooney … has done a lot of things, she expertly deadpans, but he didnotwriteMary Poppins.
A host delightedly referencing a backward-moving contestants repetition of a name?
George Clooney is the Miss Vanjie of the Jimmy Awards.
Benanti invites all 80 nominees back onstage for the announcement of the eight finalists.
The names called are …
Riley Thad Young (Memphis) J.R. Heckman (Cleveland).
Andrew Barth Feldman (New York).
Darian Goulding (Chicago).
Emily Escobar (Tampa).
Marisa Ines Moenho (Palm Springs).
Sabrina Astle (La Mirada, California).
PHOENIX FROM THE ASHES!
I scream a scream so guttural.
It is involuntary and cathartic and I begin to wonder if this is … sports?
Am I now sports?)…
Renee Rapp (Charlotte, North Carolina).
Emily Escobars Gorgeous fromThe Apple Treeis a delight with a trilled coloratura surprise at the end.
Jet fuel cant melt George Clooney!
How … how are they gonna choose?
Our photographer Mark is ready to tear his own hair out.
Finally finally the time has come to coronate teen theater royalty.
The finalists are invited back onstage, and …
The eight finalists RISE from BENEATH the stage!
They are all holding hands as they emerge.
Or that they are scared by the movement of the elevator platform.
The crowd goes wild, then falls silent as the envelope is produced.
The question now is no longerhoware they gonna choose, butwhoare they gonna choose?
As he makes his way over, you could almost hear him reminding himself how to walk.
… And Renee Rapp!
Renee has less distance to travel, but Im close enough to notice her hands shaking.
They were prepared to sing.
They were prepared to act.
They were prepared to dance.
There is no way to prepare to win.
10:48 p.m.: The after-party is at Planet Hollywood.
Already teaching our future stars to move immediately from Broadway to Los Angeles?
They anxiously await the nominees arrivals; and when those nominees do arrive?
My apologies to the powers that be, but they are no longer nominees to me.
I am soon not going to haveroomleft in mybody.
11:59 p.m.: It is officially past my bedtime.
Not even sure why the question could go so poorly!
I ask her if she was able to come out of her shell as the week progressed.
I made so many new friends.
I was so scared I wouldnt, but … this was … the best.
This was the best week of my life.
I think about her smile the whole way home.
The Jimmy Awards are a sanctuary from that.
And I choose to celebrate that celebration.
The Jimmys honor earnestness and effort in a society that continually extols the idea of giving no fucks.
Not giving a fuck is boring.
These young people giveeveryfuck.
Youcannottry to look nonchalant while tap-dancing in a Beast costume.
There is no way to be cool at the Jimmys.
Cool, quite frankly, sucks.
This night is not cool.
