Road to the Jimmys 2025, Episode 6: The Dazzle Awards in Cleveland, Ohio

If the Tony Awards speak to what’s happening on Broadway now, the Jimmy Awards forecast Broadway's future. Formally known as the National High School Musical Theatre Awards, the Jimmy Awards are an annual celebration of outstanding musical theater talent in high schools across America—from Dallas to Des Moines, San Antonio to San Diego, Memphis to Minneapolis. This year's Jimmy Awards will be held on June 23 at the Minskoff Theatre. Until then, The Broadway Show is chronicling the Road to the Jimmys, spotlighting a few of the regional competitions that send their most talented teens to New York City each spring.

We make our final stop in Cleveland, Ohio where the Dazzle Awards recently lit up Playhouse Square with a spectacular 10th anniversary performance. "The Dazzle Awards has allowed our students to see what is achievable in the professional industry and beyond," says Jill Haller, Magnificat High School's Director of Performing Arts. "It's given them a drive that is unlike any other." Gabi Ilg, an alum of both the Dazzle Awards and the Jimmy Awards adds, "I think it's so important for students to be participating in these programs like the Dazzle Awards, and for schools to offer them...I think it's just so important to keep community alive, to keep connection alive—because those are just the most impotant things of being alive."