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2023/24 Jerry Awards

Anastasia The Musical has been awarded Outstanding Musical, the highest Jerry Award from the Overture Center for the Arts in Madison! In addition, sophomore Campbell Cutlan received Outstanding Leading Performance for her role as Countess Lily Malevsky-Malevitch and senior, Liam Kaplan playing Vlad Popov received the Spirit Award. Congratulations to the Marshfield High School Drama Club for earning this prestigious recognition!

media release: The 2023/24 Jerry Awards program will culminate in a show honoring student and school achievements, including performances by the Outstanding Award recipients, in Overture Hall on Sunday, June 9, at 6:30 p.m. Two outstanding lead performers will be selected on Monday, May 27 to represent the program at The National High School Musical Theatre Awards® (Jimmy Awards®) competition in New York City.

Jerry Awards tickets ($35) go on sale Friday, May 24 at 11 a.m. at overture.org. Pay What You Wish ($5 minimum) tickets will also be available for the livestream.

This year, the program features 500-plus award recipients from 111 productions in 100 communities across the state. These productions were at schools of varying sizes with varying budgets.

Participation statistics for the 2023/24 season:

  • 111 productions
  • 100 schools/community theater organizations
  • 43 schools are represented in the 56 Outstanding Lead Performance Award recipients
  • 31 counties
  • 65 reviewers (three reviewers attended each production)
  • 300+ Awards Presented
  • 111,000 people involved in the Jerry Awards through engagement with their local high school musical

Click here to view the complete list of recipients.

The Jerry Awards is a high school musical awards program that encourages, recognizes and honors excellence in high school musical theater. The program began in the 2009/10 school year with 23 productions within 45 miles of Madison and has since expanded across the state through partnerships with Marcus Center for the Performing Arts and The Grand Theater. Educators and industry professionals review productions at Wisconsin high schools and/or community theater organizations and provide valuable feedback to students. In its first decade, the Jerry Awards engaged more than 700,000 students, teachers, theater professionals and community members.

To be eligible for the Jerry Awards, high schools apply in the fall or spring to have their musical reviewed by the program.  Three adjudicators (industry professionals and educators) are assigned to see the show and write a critique evaluating it in various categories such as performance, design and direction.  Critiques are compiled and sent to each school with nominations. In addition to the critique and being recognized at the awards show, participating students are eligible to audition for the Jerry Ensemble, become a student social influencer and receive special ticket offers to performances at Overture Center, Marcus Performing Arts Center and The Grand Theater.

Overture Center is pleased to partner with the Marcus Center for the Performing Arts and The Grand Theater, expanding the reach of the Jerry Awards to Milwaukee, Wausau and LaCrosse area schools. Overture’s Jerry Awards are sponsored by American Girl’s Fund for Children, Katie Dowling-Marcus and Ben Marcus, and contributions to Overture Center.