Four Boston Conservatory Alumni Nominated for Tony Awards in 2016

Four talented alumni of the Boston Conservatory have been nominated for 2016 Tony Awards in top categories, including Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Role in a Musical, Best Musical and Best Revival of a Musical.

Jennifer Simard (B.F.A. '92, musical theater), pictured right, was nominated for her role as Sister Mary Downy, a gambling-addicted nun in Disaster!, a send-up of 1970s disaster films. Simard, who gets to sing Gloria Gaynor’s classic “Never Can Say Goodbye” to a slot machine in the production, is a Broadway veteran who has also appeared in The25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, Shrek the Musical and Sister Act.

Producers Ben Simpson (B.F.A. '11) and Joe Longthorne (B.F.A. '12) received the Best Musical nod for Waitress, an adaptation of the 2007 movie. Simpson and Longthorne were hailed for putting together a groundbreaking all-female creative team of director Diane Paulus, songwriter Sara Bareilles, choreographer Lorin Latarro and writer Jessie Nelson, who wrote the book. The acclaimed Broadway production also stars former Conservatory student Kimiko Glenn, best-known for her role in the hit Netflix series, Orange is the New Black.

Constantine Maroulis (B.F.A. '02, musical theater) was part of the producing team that received the Best Revival nomination for mounting Deaf West Theater’s production of Spring Awakening on Broadway. The show was celebrated as historic for bringing deaf and hearing actors together on the same stage and for seamlessly merging American Sign Language into the choreography.

The Tony Awards were held on June 12, 2016 at the Beacon Theatre in New York City.