Aurora’s Paramount Theatre reached for the stars during Chicago’s 2024-25 theater season, and it paid off with news that Paramount earned 26 nominations – more than any other Chicago theater – in Chicago’s 2025 Equity Joseph Jefferson Awards.
Six Paramount productions earned 26 nominations across categories for outstanding performance, direction and design. Paramount’s tally was topped by its circus-inspired Broadway Series staging of Cats with ten nominations, followed by Paramount’s Chicago Regional Premiere of Disney’s Frozen the Broadway Musical, with eight.
Nominations for Waitress, also part of the Broadway Series, Paramount’s BOLD Series productions Peter and the Starcatcher and The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, and its immersive staging of Million Dollar Quartet at its new Stolp Island Theatre brought Paramount’s total nominations to 26, besting Chicago’s Goodman and Court theaters with 21 nominations each.
This year’s total also toppled Paramount’s record for most nominations in a single year, which previously stood at 18 during the 2016-2017 season.
“The Jeff Committee, the critics and more than 40,000 Paramount subscribers agree – Paramount is producing the very best large-scale musicals in the entire Chicago area,” said Paramount President and CEO Tim Rater. “This is our tenth consecutive year for multiple nominations, which we see as strong recognition for the work consistently being produced by our amazing artists on stage and behind the scenes. In addition, our patrons and the City of Aurora share in the excitement every year. Indeed we all have much to take pride in and be thankful for.”
In sum, since the Jeffs started judging Paramount’s productions in 2015, Paramount has been honored with 150 Jeff nominations and 31 wins, including six Jeff Awards in 2022 for Kinky Boots, including Best Musical-Large, Paramount’s fourth win in the most coveted category following Sweeney Todd (2017), West Side Story (2016) and Les Misérables (2015).
The 2025 Equity Jeff Awards will be announced on Monday, September 29 at the Harris Theatre in downtown Chicago. For tickets and to see the total list of nominees, visit jeffawards.org.
