6 Highlights From the 2026 Jimmy Awards

The 116 nominees who took the Minskoff stage at the 17^th annual Jimmy Awards have never known a world without the Jimmys. It’s a wild thing to fathom for anyone who saw the National High School Musical Theater Awards (nicknamed for late legendary producer and theater owner James M. Nederlander) rise from scrappy youth program to the biggest launching pad for Broadway talent since our industry attempted reality television.

The teen showcase (available to view on YouTube through June 25) is officially entrenched in the Broadway ecosystem—and to borrow the parlance of this year’s host, Bowen Yang, it is the culture that makes thousands of theater kids across the country say “culture is for me.”

There’s no such thing as a lowlight at the Jimmys, but read on for some of TheaterMania’s favorite highlights from this year’s ceremony.

1. A Triple Threat Is Born
The Jimmys opening number always feels like sensory overload in the most mood-enhancing way. This year’s mega mash-up of the Broadway season made great use of Two Strangers’ awe-struck tune “New York,” gave us a “Time Warp” the size of a flash mob, and had the nominees posing and duck-walking like Jellicle cats. And yet, Josef Wright from Orlando, Florida, managed to steal every eyeball with his MJ dance break. When he later jumped out of the second medley lineup to sing “New York, New York” as On the Town’s Ozzie, he had everyone thinking, “Triple threat.” By the time he made it to the final round of solos and delivered “How It Ends” from Big Fish, he had everyone thinking, “Star.”

2. Winner of “Best Broadway Crossover Event” Goes To…
If you’re new to the Jimmys, the first thing you need to know is the grand tradition of the character medley. Every year, strands of the musical theater multiverse get knotted up in ways you never knew you needed, whether it’s three different Harold Hills singing about River City’s troublesome pool hall, or Elle Woods trying her hardest to pep up the Phantom. This year’s best collision came in the fourth medley when John Poncy from Washington, DC, gave the jauntiest “Brotherhood of Man” a J. Pierrepont Finch has ever aw shucks-ed his way through. He struck his final pose and tossed it to Kiss Me, Kate’s Shakespearean shrew Lilli Vanessi (Emma Rose Armstrong from Tampa, Florida), who was buying none of what he was selling. Speaking for all the theater nerds, a well-timed “I Hate Men” really kills.

3. Fosse!
The nominees not slotted into character medleys performed a tribute to Chicago in honor of the long-running revival’s 30^th anniversary. Veteran Roxie Hart Charlotte d’Amboise jumped in to guest-choreograph, which made this number its own event. But the “Cell Block Tango” portion of the medley demands a special shout out. Watch these teens make meals of their mini murderess monologues with acting choices worthy of a Broadway stage. There’s also some gender-bending ’round this cell block, which makes you wish you could see a whole production of disgruntled queer men driven by their husbands to homicide.

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5. Mew for the Camera
Before Yang announced the names of the eight finalists, other nominees were presented with awards that came with $2,500 scholarships. Among the Outstanding Performance in an Ensemble winners was Hayden Hooper from Memphis, Tennessee, who strutted downstage like he was Bustopher Jones and the category was Jellicle? Realness. With each subsequent winner that was announced, Hooper would jump and celebrate, and then immediately shoot back to camera with Blue Steel. “I’m gonna cry,” Yang said, barely containing himself. For anyone wondering, that’s how you make friends and find your lens.

5. A Winning Key Change
The finalist solos are always spectacular and often follow performers long into their professional careers (ask me how many times I’ve watched Eva Noblezada’s rendition of “With You” from Ghost). Jason Robert Brown has become a usual suspect in this portion of the evening, and we got two of his songs this year: “Moving Too Fast” from The Last Five Years (performed by Langston Casey from St. Louis) and “It’s Hard to Speak My Heart” from Parade (performed by this year’s Best Actor winner Jake James from Atlanta, Georgia). Best Actress winner Samia Posadas (from Tucson, Arizona), however, opted for the less ubiquitous Lysistrata Jones showstopper “Where Am I Now?” and it was clearly a winning move. Not only is it an underappreciated banger, but the last verse has a terrifying key change that is a belter’s trump card … if you nail it … which she did.        

6. The Host With the Most
Yang, the man who birthed Wicked’s Pfannee fandom and helped usher Titaníque to Tony-nominated acclaim, came to the Jimmys with his musical theater credentials ready to go. As promised, he delivered a show tailor-made for an audience that can appreciate jokes about niche Broadway stars and Fire Island. Besides being one of the funniest hosts the Jimmys has seen in its 17 years, Yang brought the nurturing, anti-Momma Rose energy the night quietly demands. “It’s amazing to be talented, which all of you are,” he told the 116 nominees before announcing which eight would be moving on in the competition. “It’s even better to be excited. People who last the longest and have the most joy in this life are the excited people.” That’s advice even the tone-deaf can take with them.