Sunday noon -- A picture and short story in Saturday's PG promised I was blogging from The Jimmys in New York, but that starts tonight, with the first round, and I'm just on my way to NYC now.
Named after legendary theater producer Jimmy Nederlander, the Jimmys are the national extension of Pittsburgh CLO's Gene Kelly Awards for Excellence in High School. Pittsburgh CLO has partnered with Nederlander Presentations Inc. (second largest Broadway theater owners); Van Kaplan's staff is heavily involved; and most of the production staff is from Pittsburgh, from music director Michael Moricz and choreographer Keisha Lalama-White to lighting and sound gurus Andy Ostrowski and Chris Evans.
The talent representing Pittsburgh is Elizabeth Bailey, a student at Pittsburgh CAPA who won this year's Kelly for best actress in the title role in "Anna Karenina," and Kian McCollum, from Chartiers Valley, who won for playing Robbie Hart in "The Wedding Singer." In NYC, they're going up against 30 more local winners from similar high school musical competitions in 15 other cities around the country -- all of them based, directly or indirectly, on the example of the Kellys, which next year celebrates its 20th year. (Click here for Elizabeth's and Kian's pictures.)
The 32 contestants have been in NYC since Thursday, working with theater pros. Tonight is the first round of the judging and the finals are Monday. I won't be blogging live, partly because it isn't a TV show (yet -- but they've sent a video crew and are making a documentary), but mainly because I'm involved. My role has been variously described as coordinator of judging or judge wrangler. The judges are five New York agents, casting directors, etc. (actual names when I get them later), with me to keep them on task. I'll know more about that later, too.
But someone is blogging already -- Casey McDermott, a senior at Chartiers Valley and last year's winner of the Kelly Critic prize. She's been here since Thursday with the 32 finalists. The picture is of her and me backstage at the 2008 Kelly Awards. For Casey's blog, which describes the first several days of this Big Apple adventure, click here.
Posted
Jun 28 2009, 04:06 PM
by
Christopher Rawson