Celebrating 10 years of high school musicals in the Charlotte area at the Blumey Awards

Without performing arts programs like the Blumey Awards, burgeoning Broadway star Phillip Johnson Richardson isn’t sure what his path might have been.

Modeled after the National High School Musical Theatre Awards, known as the Jimmys, the Blumey Awards were created 10 years ago by Blumenthal Performing Arts to recognize excellence in Charlotte-area high school musical theater.

On Jan. 13, Blumenthal will host a one-night event to celebrate a decade of the Blumey Awards. The event will also benefit the newly announced Blumey Inspire Fund.

Richardson is part of that history. A graduate of Charlotte’s Northwest School of the Arts, he participated in the Blumey Awards from 2012 through 2014, winning Best Supporting Actor for his role as Donkey in “Shrek the Musical” in 2014.

“You get to perform on the Blumenthal stage, and it’s one of the most amazing experiences I’ve ever had,” said the actor, in a Blumenthal video in November.

He went on to study at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, joined the Chicago company ensemble of “Hamilton,” and is now starring as Tinman in the pre-Broadway revival of “The Wiz,” which came to Charlotte last fall. It hits Broadway this spring.

“You get awarded for something that you do, something that you love, and that you feel is important. It validates your experience with theater,” Richardson said. “Arts for kids and arts for young adults is one of the most important things that can exist. If I didn’t have arts programs like this, I don’t know where I would be.”

A decade of the Blumeys

The Blumeys have a history of identifying rising stars like Reneé Rapp, a Northwest grad who won a Blumey for her portrayal of Sandra in “Big Fish.” She went on to star in “Mean Girls” on Broadway. Then Rapp segued into the HBO Max series “Sex Lives of College Girls,” is starring in the movie musical “Mean Girls,” which opens this month and recently was on a concert tour that stopped in Charlotte.

Eva Noblezada, who starred in the 2014 West End revival of “Miss Saigon,” won Best Actress at the Blumeys in 2014. The list of stand-out talent goes on. Noblezada also is a two-time Tony nominee, for “Hadestown” and “Miss Saigon.”

Ahead of Richardson’s Broadway debut this spring, there are two other Blumey alums currently on The Great White Way: Will Branner, a Charlotte Latin School 2012 Blumey nominee, performing in “Back to the Future;” and Liam Pearce, a Northwest 2016 and 2018 Blumey nominee, who is starring in “How to Dance in Ohio.”

In December, Blumenthal announced the featured performers for the anniversary show, which will feature past Blumey participants, including Northwest grad Maya Sistruck. She recently participated in the world premiere of the musical adaptation of “The Great Gatsby,” which also starred Noblezada as Daisy Buchanan, at New Jersey’s Paper Mill Playhouse.

Other featured performers include Justin Rivers, a Blumey Award winner for Best Actor in 2016 an 2017, is starring in the world premiere of “A Transparent Musical,” and Mekhai Lee, who won the 2014 Blumey Award for Best Actor and was part of the national tour of “The Color Purple.” The fourth featured performer is Sayo Oni, who also appeared in “Hadestown,” and is a Central Academy of Technology & Arts graduate.

They will join 47 teachers, 66 students and 25 alumni representing 34 Charlotte-area schools at Belk Theater to perform a medley of songs directed by David Dabon.

Expanding arts access

But it’s not only the theater industry’s on-stage roles that the Blumeys’ illuminate.

After graduating from Gaston Day School in Gastonia, two-time Blumey Awards Best Actor nominee Thomas Laub studied musical theater at the University of Michigan, eventually starting his own production company, Runyonland Productions.

The Blumey Awards experience left a lasting effect on Laub. “It’s certainly a program that has always hit close to home for me and gave me my first taste that there’s an industry here,” he said, “and (that the arts are) not just something that you do after school.”

For the past five years, Laub has produced on and Off Broadway, and won Tony Awards for David Byrne’s “American Utopia” in 2021 and for “Parade” in 2022.

“I didn’t know how lucky we were to grow up in Charlotte with the Blumenthal and such an incredible arts program,” Laub said. “The arts are a career, which is something that we’re not told enough growing up.”

Laub, along with TV journalist Brigida Mack, will host the Blumeys celebration event and looks forward to helping expanding access to the arts across Charlotte.

“The Inspire Fund is all about creating access and expanding access to schools that haven’t traditionally been financially able to participate in the Blumey Awards,” Laub said.

The funds will support things like performance licenses for Title I schools to participate in the Blumey Awards, training for teachers and supplies for schools’ musicals.

“(We want) to help more students who don’t have access yet or can’t afford access, or their schools can’t, or their teachers aren’t trained in how to put on a school musical,” Laub said. “This event is taking the magic of the past 10 years of the Blumeys program and making it accessible to more folks.”

Blumeys by the numbers

▪ $2 million+: The amount of money that Blumenthal Performing Arts has pledged to investing in the Blumey Awards program over the past decade.

▪ 200,000: The number of students involved in the program since it began.

▪ 400: Through 2024, this will be the number of musicals adjudicated by the Blumeys.

▪ 78: The number of students who have been awarded over $1.2 million in scholarships from The Doctor Family Foundation, Gordan Hay and Spirit of Service.

Want to go?

Details about the Jan. 13 event can be found at blumenthalarts.org. The 2024 Blumey Awards is scheduled for Sunday, May 26, at Belk Theater.

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