Aurora’s Paramount Theatre earns best tuner Jeff noms for all four of its musicals

Paramount Theatre’s recently concluded 2025-2026 season left quite an impression on Joseph Jefferson Committee members, who nominated all four of its Broadway Series musicals for equity Jeff Awards.

The Aurora theater’s regional premieres of “Come From Away” and “Dear Evan Hansen,” along with “Irving Berlin’s White Christmas” and “South Pacific,” received nominations for best large musical alongside Writers Theatre’s “As You Like It,” Marriott Theatre’s “A Little Night Music” and Drury Lane Theatre’s “On Your Feet!”

Directors Jessica Fisch (“Dear Evan Hansen”), Stephen Schellhardt (“Irving Berlin’s White Christmas”) and Trent Stork (“Come From Away”) also received large musical directing nods alongside Braden Abraham (“As You Like It”) and Nick Bowling (“A Little Night Music”).

The Jeff nominations for excellence in Chicago-area equity theater were announced Wednesday. The winners will be announced Sept. 14 at the Harris Theater for Music and Dance in Chicago.

Goodman Theatre, which received 24 nominations in total, more than any other theater, also earned multiple nominations in the best play large category for “The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao,” “Holiday,” “Covenant” and “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.” Steppenwolf Theatre’s “Amadeus,” TimeLine Theatre’s revivals of “An Enemy of the People” and “Eureka Day,” Writers Theatre’ regional premiere of “Leopoldstadt” and its production of “Job,” and Chicago Shakespeare Theater’s “Much Ado About Nothing” also received nominations in the best play large category.

Longtime Buffalo Theatre Ensemble artistic associate and managing artistic director emerita Connie Canaday Howard received her first Jeff Award nomination for midsize play direction for BTE’s “Georgiana and Kitty: Christmas at Pemberley.” The revival also earned nominations for set designers Jacqueline and Richard Penrod, costume designer Aly Greaves Amidei and composer Christopher Kriz.

Howard’s fellow midsize play directing nominees include: Mikael Burke for Raven Theatre’s “Oak,” Elyse Dolan for American Blues Theater’s “Come Back, Little Sheba,” Kirsten Fitzgerald for A Red Orchid Theatre’s “Birds of North America,” Hallie Gordon for Rivendell Theatre Ensemble’s “Pivot,” and Jeremy Wechsler for Theater Wit’s “The Ally.”

Newcomer Cody Combs, a Northern Kentucky University undergraduate who made his professional debut as the titular socially anxious teen in Paramount’s “Dear Evan Hansen,” received a nomination for principal performance in a leading role musical.

The category also includes nominations for Gaby Albo in Drury Lane’s “On Your Feet!,” Jackson Evans and Maya Rowe in Marriott’s “Little Shop of Horrors,” Hershey Felder in Writers’ “Hershey Felder’s Rachmaninoff and the Tsar,” Phoebe Gonzalez in Writers’ “As You Like It,” JJ Niemann in Marriott’s “Catch Me If You Can,” Allsun O’Malley in Paramount’s “South Pacific,” Alex Syiek in Paramount’s “Irving Berlin’s White Christmas,” and Jaitee Thomas in Black Ensemble Theater’s “The Jackie Wilson Story.”

As the only nominee in the midsize musical and midsize musical direction categories, Raven Theatre’s acclaimed regional premiere of “Octet,” currently in a remount at Goodman Theatre (and whose film adaptation directed by Lin-Manuel Miranda recently wrapped production), will receive Jeff Awards for musical and director Keira Fromm in September. The sole nominee in the solo performance category, Kelvin Roston Jr. will receive an award for his performance as the late singer/songwriter Donny Hathaway in Northlight Theatre’s “Twisted Melodies.”

For a complete list of nominees, see jeffawards.org.