JUNE 24, 2026

Hello, Stage Whisperers, 

On Monday night, we all got to enjoy June’s most exciting awards ceremony: the Jimmy Awards. Every year, the annual high-school musical-theater competition culminates in a series of live performances at the Minskoff Theater, where teenagers from across the nation belt their hearts out under the watchful gaze of casting directors, industry bigwigs (Zoe Kazan and Paul Dano were there, seemingly just enjoying a date night), the year’s host, Bowen Yang (who did a great job; he should host every time), and that one giant mask of Mufasa that hangs over the escalators in the lobby. 

The Jimmys are beloved for the way they give a platform for pure, youthful enthusiasm. They also launch careers; back in 2018, Vulture sent Natalie Walker to cover the year in which Reneé Rapp and Andrew Barth Feldman won. (She went on to Mean Girls the musical, The Sex Lives of College Girls, and a pop career; he did Dear Evan Hansen, No Hard Feelings, and, recently, Maybe Happy Ending.) But most important, they give us some delightful medleys: In the first half of the show, competitors perform group numbers in costume as the characters they played in their high-school musicals, trading off solos in quick succession, such that an Eva Perón might interrupt a J. Pierrepont Finch and then hand things off to one of the night’s many Eurydices. 

This year was very big on Hadestown: Teen Edition, which seems to be the new king of high-school-theater programming. But mostly it was, as usual, a big year for hats. We got a Curly cradling a cowboy hat, a ton of pageboys of various types (including your requisite Newsies), a Bright Star bonnet from one of the winners (more on that below), and a pilot’s cap on one girl who did a convincing impersonation of a world-weary aviator singing “Me and the Sky.” Musical theater, as it turns out, is all about mastering your relationship to headwear.

Jackson McHenry
Critic, Vulture

The latest grosses are here! This week,  Jackson McHenry, Jason P. Frank, and Zach Schiffman discuss.

JACKSON MCHENRY: A rising tide across the board with some more post-Tonys upticks and a big last week for Chess.

JASON P. FRANK: Lots of stuff nearing their end and going out higher than before. The Balusters’s and The Fear of 13’s bumps are both explained by that.

ZACH SCHIFFMAN: Which is sadder: $21 average price for Celebrity Autobiography or 22 percent capacity? Also, does anyone think Matteo Lane is going to get butts in seats at Chicago or …

JACKSON: The Jimmy Awards Chicago medley is, to be honest, the thing that got me most excited about Chicago recently. Put them in the show for a week!

JASON: Okay, put some respect on P!nk’s Tonys performance. Made me wonder what else P!nk can do. Could she star in a dramatic musical-theater tour de force?

JACKSON: Are you asking if she could lend the same gravitas to “I Miss the Mountains” as Jimmys finalist Emersyn Hunt?

JASON: Emerysn should play her Gabe.

JACKSON: Oh, something that is interesting — Wicked is at 88.48 percent capacity and was at 89 last week. Over the past few months, its numbers have ebbed from the mega-blockbuster levels the movie releases kept them at for two years. Before this spring, the last time I can find them below 90 percent capacity is in September 2024. And its grosses were never below $1.5 million between February 2024 and March of this year. Seems we’re all collectively experiencing a post–Wicked: For Good hangover.

JASON: Maybe they should start stunt casting Wicked. Gracie Abrams as Elphaba?

JACKSON: With P!nk?

JASON: Her in the white Fiyero pants … could be something!

Even though it’s late June, this has been an especially busy week for theater-programming news. Lincoln Center Theater did a big presentation of its 2026-2027 season yesterday morning, revealing that it plans to do A Few Good Men in the fall and The Sound of Music in the spring with Jasmine Amy Rogers as Maria. (Other notable entries in its programming include a new play from John Proctor’s Kimberly Bellflower, and Matthew Rhys Welshmaxxing as Richard Burton.) That came just after MTC revealed on Monday that Rogers would be leading its fall staging of School Girls: Or, The African Mean Girls Play with Denée Benton and Patina Miller. In similarly big but non–Jasmine Amy Rogers news, Lin-Manuel Miranda and Eisa Davis’s Warriors, initially released as a concept album, is coming to the Lunt-Fontanne in April. Between those and the incoming British frigates that are Evita and Paddington, the spring is ready to rumble on multiple fronts, though selfishly as someone recently assigned to work on a fall preview, I wish this fall were looking a little more perky. We’re getting the requisite celebrity plays, but there are only two new musicals announced for the rest of this year. Come on, producers, don’t be shy! (Why on earth would they be shy?)

By Jason P. Frank

Photo:Tricia Baron, Courtesy of The Broadway League

If you’re a regular Jimmy Awards watcher, you might have already known Samia Posadas before she won the Best Actress award Monday night. Posadas competed at the Jimmys twice before. As a freshman, she played Elle Woods in her high school’s production of Legally Blonde and was a finalist in the competition. She returned her sophomore year, was a finalist again, but lost her regional award the next year, meaning she couldn’t compete at the national level. Finally, in her senior year, she took home the big trophy with a performance from her school’s musical, Big Fish, that got her into the finals. Then she performed her winning solo: a stunningly clear rendition of “Where Am I Now?” from the obscure 2010s musical Lysistrata Jones. 

Now she’s off to USC’s musical-theater program. That is, unless she books a job, like many previous Jimmy winners do. I chatted with her about her four years with the Jimmys, what it feels like to win, and what her future ambitions are. 

How are you feeling after your big win?

After the show, we went to our after-party at the Hard Rock Cafe and got back to Juilliard around 1 a.m. I had to be up a couple hours later because [her fellow winner] Jake [James] and I had to go on Good Morning America. Then we went back to Juilliard. I was crying because I had to say good-bye to all of my friends who I spent ten days with. Now I’m in Indiana for the International Thespian Festival for the next three days.

You were a finalist all three years you went to the ceremony. How did you approach choosing your solos through the years?

My freshman year, I went in wanting to sing “A New Life” from Jekyll & Hyde. I went into my coaching group with Max Chernin that year, and he was like, “What other songs do you have?” I had “Stupid With Love” from Mean Girls. I performed it for him, and he was like, “You’ve got to do this.” That was incredibly unexpected for me. It fit the actress that I was at 15. Sophomore year, I was like, “This is my last chance.” And Kim from Miss Saigon is one of my dream roles, so I was thrilled to perform “I Give My Life for You.” I love that role more than words can express. 

Why do the Lysistrata Jones song “Where Am I Now?” this year?

My sophomore year, when I won my regional awards program, the song that I chose as my finalist song was “Where Am I Now?” When I got selected to go to the Jimmy Awards, I was like, “I’m going to take Miss Saigon.” This year, “Where Am I Now?” really resonates with me. I just graduated from high school. I’m going off to college. There was a lot of power and passion that I was able to relate to through the lyrics that were in that song.

What do you think goes into making a Jimmy Awards performance a winning one?

I approach all of the adjudication side of the Jimmy Awards by saying I have nothing to prove, only to share. I’m not going to form my performance around what I think people want. The best performers always say, Stay true to yourself, be authentic, and soak in your uniqueness, because you never know what the judges are looking for. 

After winning the Jimmys, a lot of kids end up getting jobs and putting off or skipping college. Would you do that if the offer came in?

I’ve had representation all throughout high school from the Jimmys. I auditioned for stuff, but before I graduated from high school, I was like, I need to focus on my education and I’m going to get my high-school diploma because high school never comes back. Now that I’ve graduated and I’m going to college … if the opportunity of a job presents itself, I would love to take up that offer. I most likely will. School is always there. But, especially in this industry, when an opportunity presents itself, it’s important to say “yes” if your heart is inclined. Follow your gut. If I think it’s a good opportunity, of course I’m going to take it.

Look out for the full interview on Vulture this week.

➼ Twenty-five years after the fact, you can finally listen to songs from Annie Get Your Gun that Reba McEntire recorded during her now-legendary turn as a replacement in the show. Reba, please come back!

➼ The Bushwick Starr’s upcoming season includes a return of The Sonic Life of a Giant Tortoise.

➼ Michaela Jaé Rodriguez abruptly left The Rocky Horror Show. 

➼ Twinks vs. Dolls does Broadway by way of a Music Man poster — like the Jimmys, also featuring Bowen Yang.

➼ Chicken suits are back in style: Kramer/Fauci will play St. Ann’s Warehouse this fall. 

➼ Skimbleshanks takes Late Night.