Winners of 3rd Annual Jerry Herman Awards Announced

The Nederlander Organization and Hollywood Pantages Theatre are proud to announce major winners in all categories from the 3rd Annual JERRY HERMAN AWARDS, which took place on Sunday June 1st. KABC 7 Eyewitness News Entertainment Reporter George Pennacchio served as the master of ceremonies for the evening.

Grand prize winning students of a $1,000 cash prize and all-expense paid trip to New York City for a chance to compete in The National High School Musical Theatre Awards in July are Joshua Velez from HArts Academy ("Pippin") and Ayla Stackhouse from Ramon C. Cortines School of Visual & Performing Arts ("In The Heights"). Best actor & actress runners up included Sawyer Patterson from John Burroughs High School, Kelsey Smith from Los Angeles County High School of the Arts, Nick Sparks from Oakwood High School and Julia McDermott from Mira Costa High School. Notre Dame Academy's Luelle Robles won the "No Small Parts" Award for her role in Hairspray. The evening's highest number of awards went to Mira Costa High School's production of Peter Pan which received four awards, including Best Musical, Best Musical Direction, Best Lighting Design & Best Ensemble or Chorus. The Ed Lester Lifetime Achievement Award was presented this year to Paul G. Gleason.

Other awards recipients for the evening included Sheldon Donenberg (Los Angeles County High School for the Arts) and Holly Gould (Palos Verdes Peninsula High School) for Best Actor and Actress respectively. Winners in creative and technical categories included Santa Monica High School (Pippin) for Best Musical Staging or Choreography, Marina High School (Crazy for You) for Best Costumes, The Academy of Music at Hamilton High School (Anything Goes) for Best Orchestra, Agoura High School (Into the Woods) for Best Scenic Design & Chaffey High School (Monty Python's Spamalot) for Best Technical Crew.

Personalities from the worlds of Broadway, film & television performed and presented at the 3rd Annual awards ceremony, celebrating its first year on the stage of Pantages Theatre. Presenters included Shirley Jones, Peyton List, Kevin Chamberlin, Obba Babatunde, George Chakiris, Russ Tamblyn, Monty Hall, Renee Marino, Richard Chamberlain & Ben Vereen. Judges for the evening included John Bowab, Nancy Dussault, Brad Ellis, Cathy Rigby and Kay Cole.

The awards show also included production numbers from four participating high school productions this season. Performances included The Academy of Music at Hamilton High School performing the title song from Anything Goes, Mira Costa High School performing "Ugg-A-Wugg" from Peter Pan, John Burroughs High School performing "Sit Down, You're Rockin' the Boat" from Guys & Dolls and Los Angeles County High School of the Arts performing the title song from Footloose.

THE 4TH ANNUAL JERRY HERMAN AWARDS will take place on Sunday May 31st, 2015.

THE JERRY HERMAN AWARDS is a local celebration dedicated to recognizing, encouraging, and rewarding achievements and excellence in high school musical theatre. It is the local award ceremony for THE NATIONAL HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL THEATRE AWARDS, also known as The Jimmy's, which take place annually at the Minskoff Theatre on Broadway in New York City. Every year two students are sent to New York to represent Los Angeles at The Jimmy's to participate in a week long workshop and compete for the coveted Jimmy Award, named after the owner of the Pantages Theatre: James M. Nederlander.

Instituted by The Nederlander Organization, THE JERRY HERMAN AWARDS is an initiative with the goal to stimulate new partnerships between theatres and the schools in Los Angeles while engaging entire families in the activities of their children and contributing to the development of future audiences for live performing arts. THE JERRY HERMAN AWARDS will focus much needed attention on the meaningful work being done by today's dedicated teachers and celebrate kids with wide ranging talents on and off the stage.

THE JERRY HERMAN AWARDS had a running time of 2 Hours and 50 Minutes.

For more information on THE JERRY HERMAN AWARDS or to register your high school for participation, please visit www.JerryHermanAwards.com.

For tickets or more information about THE NATIONAL HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL THEATRE AWARDS and THE JIMMY AWARDS, please visit www.nhsmta.com.