Spring Valley High School’s production of “Fame” — about a high school of talented performers — just garnered 13 nominations for the Metropolitan Awards, honoring the best in high-school musicals from among participating schools in Rockland, Westchester and Bergen counties.

(Watch the announcement on demand here.)
(Read the entire list of nominees here.)
(You can also read stories about nominated productions in Westchester, Rockland and Putnam County, and see videos, here.)

Forty schools took part in this year’s competition — six from Rockland, 19 from Westchester and 15 from Bergen county— the same number as took part last year. Unlike last year, this year every school received at least one nomination.

The Metropolitan Awards will be handed out at a ceremony at Peekskill’s Paramount Center for the Arts on June 8, the night after Broadway honors its best with the Tony Awards.

Spring Valley’s 13 nominations (not counting those for technical merit) bettered Don Bosco Prep’s production of “Les Miserables,” which had a dozen nominations, Clarkstown South High School’s “Cabaret” and Fair Lawn’s “Thoroughly Modern Millie,” which each had 11 nominations. (Don Bosco and Fair Lawn are in Bergen County.)

Spring Valley, Don Bosco, Fair Lawn are all up for the top honor, outstanding overall production, as is Briarcliff High School’s production of “Little Shop of Horrors” and New Milford’s “Working.”

The Metropolitan Awards, in their 11th year, began as the Helen Hayes High School Theater Awards — “The Helens.” Three years ago, Washington, D.C.’s Kennedy Center protested the use of the name, as the venue hands out Helen Hayes Awards to the best theater performances in the Washington, D.C., area.

The high-school honors then became the generic “High School Theater Awards” for three years.
Producer Danielle Rudess says the name change — to The Metropolitan Awards — reflects two developments.

First, Rudess intends to expand branches of the competition to Manhattan and Orange county in coming years.

Second, the winners of this year’s Metro Awards for outstanding lead actor and actress will take part in the National High School Musical Theater Awards, which will bring together winners from 15 similar contests nationwide for a four-day program at the end of June at New York University. The winners will take master classes from Broadway professionals, meet with NYU professors, see a Broadway show and learn two production numbers over the five-day event, June 25-29.

Then, on June 29 at the Skirball Center for the Performing Arts, the inaugural Jimmy Awards — named for Broadway theater owner James M. Nederlander — will be handed out. The participants will perform the production numbers and will be seen by major talent scouts and casting directors.

Then the first-ever Jimmy Awards will be bestowed to two of the 30 high-schoolers.

One of these Metro nominees might be able to parlay an award once known as a Helen and now known as a Metro into a Jimmy.

The nominees for outstanding actress in a leading role are: Blind Brook’s Stacey Lurie (Anna Leonowens in “The King & I”); Briarcliff’s Michelle Rubich (Audrey in “Little Shop of Horrors”); Fair Lawn’s Julia Knitel (Millie Dillmount in “Thoroughly Modern Millie”); Mahwah’s Sarah Moyer (Natalie Haller in “All Shook Up”); Rockland Country Day’s Isabelle McCalla (Amalia Balash in “She Loves Me”); Rye Neck’s Lauren Amrhein (Dorothy Brock in “42nd Street”); St. Joseph’s Taryn Tonelli, (Mrs. Walker in “Tommy”); and Spring Valley’s Kristen Santos (Carmen Diaz in “Fame”).

The nominees for outstanding actor in a leading role are: Briarcliff’s Harrison Johnson (Seymour in “Little Shop of Horrors”); Don Bosco’s Aaron Sauer (Valjean in “Les Miserables”); Hastings’s Niko Gelfars (Mark in “Rent: School Edition”); Hendrick Hudson’s Steven Kane (The Scarecrow in “The Wizard of Oz”); Mahwah’s Eric J. Fuchs-Stengel (Chad in “All Shook Up”); Northern Highlands’ William McEntee (Aimable Castagnet in “The Baker’s Wife”); St. Joseph’s Joseph DePietro (Tommy in “Tommy”); and Spring Valley’s Alex Domini (Nick Piazza in “Fame”).

“We realized that we’re the New Yorkers when it comes to all of the high-school-musical awards,” Rudess said, “so The Metropolitan Awards seemed to make sense.”

If they’re the New Yorkers, they are also among the first high-school-musical contests.
Modeled on the Paper Mill Playhouse’s 14-year-old Rising Star Awards, the Metropolitan Awards are the second such program in the country.

According to the National High School Musical Theater Awards, in 2007, more than 54,000 students at 900 high schools across the United States took part in similar awards programs.

In Atlanta, the honors are named for Tony-winner Shuler Hensley. In Forth Worth, they’re the Betty Buckley Awards. In Pittsburgh, they’re the Gene Kelly Awards.

The Metropolitan Awards, given in 27 categories, are a high-decibel affair, held the past two years at Peekskill’s 1,000-seat Paramount Center for the Arts.

The Metros are judged on every aspect of a production, from lobby display and sets to acting, singing and direction. Judges, who are paid, fill out extensive online evaluation forms which are then tabulated to determine nominees and winners.

Among new schools in this year’s competition are New Rochelle’s Salesian High School, Mamaroneck, Solomon Schechter, Yorktown, Albertus Magnus.

The emcees for this year’s ceremony will be Adam and Todd Stone, aka Stone and Stone. The identical twins were seen on “Last Comic Standing” and in national commercials.

They were involved with Pelham High School’s theater productions and performed onstage at “The Helens” when their productions were nominated for overall outstanding production. In 2001, Adam Stone, played Zach (the director), in Pelham High School’s production of “A Chorus Line,” which won for Outstanding Overall Production.

Each nominated school gets an allotment of 15 tickets to the June 8 ceremony. Those schools up for outstanding overall production receive an extra 30 tickets.

After all school requests have been met, remaining tickets are available to the public.

Those wishing to be placed on the waiting list to purchase tickets should email helenhayesyt@aol.com or call 845-826-2049.