Two Boston Conservatory at Berklee Alums Win Tony Awards

Boston Conservatory at Berklee alums Ben Simpson (B.F.A. '11, musical theater) and Mike Mosallam (M.M. '06, musical theater) took home Tony Awards at the 2024 ceremony, earning recognition for Best Revival of a Musical and Best Revival of a Play, respectively.

Simpson was a producer for Merrily We Roll Along, which won Best Revival of a Musical as well as three additional Tonys for Best Orchestrations, Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Musical, and Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Musical. As a theatrical producer, Simpson has previously won three Tony Awards for his coproducing work on Parade, The Band’s Visit, and Hello, Dolly!

Mosallam won the Tony for Best Revival of a Play as a producer for the lauded revival of Appropriate, which also earned awards in the categories of Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play and Best Lighting Design of a Play. He won a Tony last year as a coproducer of Parade, which took home the prize for Best Revival of a Musical. In 2017, Mosallam returned to Boston Conservatory to direct students in a production of Stephen Karam’s Pulitzer Prize–nominated play Sons of the Prophet. 

In addition to the wins by Simpson and Mosallam, one alum from Boston Conservatory at Berklee and two from Berklee College of Music were nominated for Tonys. Conservatory alum Cedric Leiba Jr. (M.M. '05, musical theater) was nominated in the category of Best Musical for his work as a coproducer on Alicia Keys’s semi-autobiographical musical, Hell’s Kitchen; and Berklee College of Music alums Brian Lee B.M. ‘14 and Dayna Lee B.M. ‘14 were nominated as coproducers for The Who’s Tommy and Cabaret. 

Boston Conservatory musical theater alums and current students are featured in several Tony-nominated productions. John Cardoza (B.F.A. '16) plays Young Noah in The Notebook; Sean Harrison Jones (B.F.A. '18), Renni Magee (B.F.A. '17), and Victor Carillo Tracey (B.F.A. '21) are in the ensemble of The Outsiders; Morgan Kirner (B.F.A. '16) is a swing and serves as the dance captain in Merrily We Roll Along; Marty Lauter (B.F.A. '18) and MiMi Scardulla (B.F.A. '16) play Victor and Texas, respectively, in Cabaret; Juliette Ojeda (B.F.A. '26) is a swing in The Notebook; and Dan Rosales (B.F.A. '13) and Derek Jordan Taylor (B.F.A. '25) are in the ensemble of The Great Gatsby. Boston Conservatory’s 2024 honorary doctorate recipient LaChanze also received a Tony for producing The Outsiders, winner of Best Musical.