NEW YORK -- A 19-year-old Pittsburgh brand made a boffo bow in the Big Apple Monday night, as the first National High School Musical Theater Awards, closely patterned after Pittsburgh CLO's annual Gene Kelly Awards, charmed an appreciative audience at New York University's Skirboll Center.

Whatever that audience -- equal parts Broadway insiders and family and friends of the contestants -- expected, they got a polished show, created and staged by Pittsburghers.

Named The Jimmys after James M. Nederlander, the 87-year-old Broadway theater owner and producer, the awards were jointly produced by Pittsburgh CLO and the Nederlander Organization. The 32 contestants were winners of 16 regional competitions, such as Houston's Tommy Tune Awards, Atlanta's Shuler Hensley Awards and Kansas City's Blue Star Awards. The Kelly Awards have been the model for many.

These regional programs comprised some 900 high schools whose musicals involved more than 54,000 students, and these 32 were the best of the best.

The slick, amusing emcee was Kathie Lee Gifford, who enthused jealously over the contestants' youth and talent. Tommy Tune paid tribute to Mr. Nederlander, whose career was chronicled in a short video.

Another video, shot by Pittsburgh's Wrecking Crew Media, chronicled the adventures of the 32 students in their whirlwind four-day dose of Show Biz, which included lots of hard work and a visit to "West Side Story," the first time some had seen a Broadway show.

On stage. the 32 were featured in ensemble numbers devised by the CLO team of executive producer Van Kaplan, director/choreographer Kiesha Lalama-White and music director Michael Moricz. And in cleverly integrated ensembles of eight they performed excerpts from their award-winning performances.

Seven judges debated their merits Sunday night after seeing solo audition pieces and those ensemble excerpts. Midway through the Monday gala, after watching them perform the excerpts in full costume, the judges withdrew for a final burst of intense debate.

The four finalists -- Jenny Wine from Wichita, Kansas; Grace Hardin and Stephen Mark from Norwich, Conn.; and Kian McCollum from Chartiers Valley High School in Pittsburgh -- then performed their solo audition pieces.

The two ultimate winners were Wine and Mark, who each won $10,000, four-year scholarships worth $100,000 to NYU and trophies featuring the Hirschfield caricature of James M. Nederlander.

There were also awards presented by the Camp Broadway program to arts educators Paula Ohaus, Hoboken (N.J.) High School, and Lynda Hodges, Sun Yat Sen Middle School in Manhattan.

Virtual co-presenter was NYU's Tisch School of the Arts, which provided the Skirboll Center and staff, performance coaches for the contestants and dorm rooms for all. It was represented on stage with characteristic articulation by Elizabeth Bradley, chair of the department of drama.

In a big after-party mixing contestants, families and much of the audience, including interested agents and casting directors, the happy students showed themselves far less interested in who won than in the friends made and experience gained.

The judges were Bernie Telsey, a leading casting director; Nick Scandalios, Nederlander Organization executive vice president; Kent Gash, head of a musical theater program at the Tisch School; Alecia Parker of National Artists Management; Scott Ellis of Broadway's Roundabout Theater; Montego Glover, actress on "Color Purple"; and Susan Lee, Nederlander marketing executive.

The new awards had a thoroughly Pittsburgh tilt. Not only are most of the regional programs modeled on the Kellys, Monday's event followed the template of the annual Kelly awards gala at the Benedum Center, with much of the same staff, from Kaplan, Moricz and Lalama-White to Christopher Evans (sound) and Andrew Ostrowski (lights).

Much of the CLO staff was also involved for all four days, including Cindy Opatick, James Mercer, Kristin Archbold, Stephanie Chaffee, Heather Kronk and Bobby Finnegan. Working on fund-raising was former Pittsburgher Steven Libman, and the Pittsburgh film crew was James Carter, Brandon Kelly and Jessica Moore.

The Pittsburgh connections went further. Paired with Kaplan as executive director was Lee, a Pittsburgh native who broke into the business as a press agent for the old Broadway series at the Syria Mosque. Hosting the event was Bradley, immediate past head of drama at Carnegie Mellon. Another judge, Gash, is a CMU grad who has returned there often to direct. And another presenter, Broadway performer Neil Haskell, attended Point Park.

Coincidentally, winner Wine's father is a Bethel Park native. And winner Mark is a student in this summer's pre-college theater program at CMU -- so he had a good excuse for missing the first couple of days of the six-week session.