by Gil BenbrookTwo Valley teens are in New York this week preparing for the 2019 National High School Musical Theatre Awards - also known as the Jimmy Awards - which will stream live on Monday, June 24 with Tony winner Ben Platt as host.
Casey Likes and Sophia Donnell won the ASU Gammage High School Musical Theatre Awards last month and are representing the Phoenix area at this year's Jimmy Awards.
Likes is from Chandler High School and he won Best Male Lead for his performance as Jean Valjean in Les Miserables and Donnell won Best Female Lead as Jo March in Little Women at Hamilton High School
They are now in New York competing with more than 80 other finalists for a chance to win the Jimmy Award for Best Performance by an Actor and Actress.
All week they've been auditioning, interviewing and competing for the big awards event set for Monday, June 24 at the Minskoff Theatre in Manhattan.
Throughout the week they've had workshops with and received feedback from a number of Broadway performers and creative members, including Tony nominee Christopher Sieber and Tony winner Randy Graff, along with fellow ASU Gammage High School Musical Theatre Award winner Sam Primack, who is currently in the Broadway cast of Dear Evan Hansen.
There are over 40 Jimmy Awards participating regional theatres, all of whom are Broadway League members, and each participant awards a Best Actor and Best Actress winner from their local area who are then invited to compete at the Jimmy Awards in New York City. These two student representatives from each area participate in the annual awards program, which is a talent showcase in New York recognizing the country’s best high school performers.
The National High School Musical Theatre Awards was established in 2009 to elevate the importance of theatre arts education in schools and reward excellence in student performance. The program is also called the Jimmy Awards, named for Broadway impresario James M. Nederlander, who was chairman of the Nederlander Organization, which established the program along with Pittsburgh CLO.
You can watch this year's show live and cheer on Sophia and Casey during the live stream event of the Jimmy Awards at: https://www.jimmyawards.com/live/ (4:30pm Arizona time)
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| Casey Likes (center) and fellow Jimmy Award nominees backstage at the New York competition |
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| Sophia Donnell (left) and fellow Jimmy Award nominees in rehearsals for the New York competition |
photos courtesy The Jimmy Awards / ASU Gammage
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