{"id":274159,"date":"2026-06-22T17:20:08","date_gmt":"2026-06-22T17:20:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/274159\/"},"modified":"2026-06-22T17:20:08","modified_gmt":"2026-06-22T17:20:08","slug":"bowen-yang-hosts-2026-jimmy-awards-june-22-watch-complete-ceremony-here","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/274159\/","title":{"rendered":"Bowen Yang Hosts 2026 Jimmy Awards June 22; Watch Complete Ceremony Here"},"content":{"rendered":"

Emmy-nominated comedian, actor, writer, podcast host, and Titan\u00edque<\/a> co-producer Bowen Yang<\/a> (Saturday Night Live, Wicked<\/a>, Las Culturistas) hosts the 17th annual Jimmy Awards, celebrating high school musical theatre talent, June 22 at Broadway’s Minskoff Theatre.<\/p>\n

The
\n 2026 Jimmy Awards will also stream for free beginning at 7:30 PM ET on Youtube. Watch the complete ceremony in the video above. The video will remain available online through the evening of June 25.\u00a0(American Sign
\nLanguage interpretation will be provided during the awards, and live
\nclosed captions will be available through the “CC” feature on the
\nprimary YouTube stream.)<\/p>\n

Video:\u00a0Get an Inside Look at Rehearsals for the 2026 Jimmy Awards<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cWe
\n are thrilled to welcome Bowen Yang as host of the 2026 Jimmy Awards.
\nBowen\u2019s creativity, humor, and enthusiasm for the talent on the Jimmy
\nAwards stage make him an ideal champion for this program. Through his
\nwork across television, film, podcasting, and live entertainment, he has
\n built a unique career that reflects the power of talent, authenticity,
\nand originality. We are excited for our nominees from across the country
\n to share the stage with him as we celebrate their achievements and
\nrecognize the next generation of theatre artists,\u201d said Jason Laks, president of The Broadway League<\/a>, in an earlier\u00a0statement.<\/p>\n

The
\n Jimmy Awards is the national talent showcase that features ensemble and
\n solo performances from musical theatre talent from around the country.
\nEach participating Regional Awards
\nProgram awards top honors to two local student performers and sponsors
\ntheir travel to New York to participate in the annual ceremony.
\n A panel of judges bestow awards and
\nscholarships, including the awards for Best Performance by an Actor and
\nBest Performance by an Actress. The Jimmy Awards play a leading role in
\n charting the future of the live performance industry, with over 90
\nalumni having performed on Broadway and in national tours and numerous
\nothers enjoying careers in film, television, and music.<\/p>\n

Meet the 2025 Jimmy Award Winners: Fabiola Caraballo Quijada and Chris Hayes<\/a><\/p>\n

Coaching this year’s nominees were\u00a0Lisa Brescia<\/a>, Janet Dacal<\/a>,
\nColin Hanlon<\/a>, MaryAnn Hu<\/a>, Adam Kantor<\/a>, Lily Kaufmann<\/a>, Adam J. Levy<\/a>, Desi
\n Oakley, Eliseo Rom\u00e1n<\/a>, Lawrence Stallings<\/a>, Steven Telsey<\/a>, and EJ
\nZimmerman.<\/p>\n

This year’s panel of judges includes\u00a0Tony-winning producers, casting experts,
\nand industry leaders: Winners and finalists will be selected by Montego
\nGlover, Kenny Leon<\/a>, Joe Machota<\/a>, Alecia Parker<\/a>, Marc Platt<\/a>, Tara Rubin<\/a>,
\nThomas Schumacher, Bernard Telsey<\/a>, and Lia Vollack<\/a>. Preliminary judges
\nwho adjudicated and cast the nominees in the Character and Feature
\nGroups include Kristian Charbonier<\/a>, Stephanie Klapper<\/a>, Sammy Lopez<\/a>,
\nKevin Metzger-Timson<\/a>, Dale Mott, T. Oliver Reid<\/a>, and Rachel Sussman<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Tony nominee Charlotte d\u2019Amboise, who has played Roxie Hart
\n in numerous engagements in the long-running Broadway revival of Chicago<\/a>, taught\u00a0a masterclass on the musical’s choreography and spent a few days rehearsing the nominees. This will culminate in a
\nperformance numbers from the Kander and Ebb musical featuring Fosse’s
\noriginal choreography during the ceremony, honoring the revival’s 30th anniversary. Chicago music director John Bell<\/a> has created an original arrangement for this performance.<\/p>\n

The evening will also feature appearances from Samuel Nelson III<\/a> and Mason Alexander Park<\/a>. <\/p>\n

The creative team is led by ceremony director Van Kaplan<\/a> and music\u00a0 supervisor Geoffrey Ko<\/a>. Ko has\u00a0also arranged and will\u00a0music direct the
\nopening number, which serves as a tribute to the 2026 Broadway season and is\u00a0directed and choreographed by Luis Salgado<\/a>. The same team will also
\nchoreograph the closing number. The infamous “character medleys” will be
\n directed by Kaplan and choreographed by Theo Lencicki, with Jon
\nBauerfeld, Wendy Bobbitt Cavett<\/a>, Steven Cuevas, Michael A. Ferrara, and
\nNoah Teplin providing musical arrangements featuring 40 nominees
\nperforming selections from the roles they played in their high school
\nproductions.<\/p>\n

The 2026 Jimmy Awards creative team is rounded out by lighting designer Karen Spahn<\/a>, sound designer Nick Borisjuk<\/a>, projection designer
\nBrad Peterson<\/a>, costume coordinator Rebecca Ming, and writer Jill Twiss.<\/p>\n

The National High School Musical Theatre Awards, known as The Jimmy
\nAwards, were founded in 2009 by Nederlander Alliances LLC, Pittsburgh
\nCLO, and Broadway Education Alliance. Named for late Broadway impresario
\n James M. Nederlander<\/a>, the mission of the NHSMTA is to advance a
\nnational conversation about the importance of arts education, honor
\nteachers and their schools\u2019 commitment to performing arts education, and
\n contribute to the development of future arts workers and audiences for
\nlive performing arts in communities across America.<\/p>\n

Presented by The Broadway League Foundation Inc., the program impacts over 180,000 students who participate in regional
\nhigh school musical theatre competitions sponsored by presenters of
\nTouring Broadway productions throughout the country. The 2026
\nJimmy Awards anticipates welcoming 116 nominees from 58 cities across
\nthe country. To date, the awards have been the
\ncatalyst for more than $9 million in educational scholarships.<\/p>\n

Visit\u00a0JimmyAwards.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Emmy-nominated comedian, actor, writer, podcast host, and Titan\u00edque co-producer Bowen Yang (Saturday Night Live, Wicked, Las Culturistas) hosts…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":274160,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[75,84,83,9,24,63],"class_list":["post-274159","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-manhattan","tag-manhattan","tag-manhattan-headlines","tag-manhattan-news","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274159","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=274159"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274159\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/274160"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=274159"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=274159"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=274159"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}