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Two Fairfax County students will make their Broadway debuts June 22 when they compete against 114 young performers from across the country at New York City’s Minskoff Theatre.

John Poncy and Allie Blanchet, students in Fairfax Academy for Communications and the Arts’ Musical Theatre and Actors Studio program, earned spots in the National High School Musical Theatre Awards—better known as the Jimmy Awards—after starring in the academy’s production of How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying earlier this year.

Poncy recently graduated from Oakton High School. Blanchet, a Madison High School student, will be a senior in the fall. Both attended Fairfax Academy classes during the past school year.

Blanchet said it felt surreal to participate after years of watching the awards’ opening numbers and character medleys. Poncy said he was grateful to be in New York alongside some of the most talented performers of his generation.

Before the ceremony, the pair are completing a 10-day intensive with Broadway artists and other industry professionals. The program is designed to sharpen participants’ singing, acting and dancing skills ahead of their performance for industry judges.

Erich Dicenzo, director of Fairfax Academy’s Musical Theatre and Actors Studio, called the Jimmy Awards the pinnacle of high school musical theatre. He said the students’ selection was rewarding for both the academy program and its broader community.

Dicenzo had considered staging How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying for several years before deciding that this was the right group of students to take on the production’s size and complexity.

“It was the right team at the right time,” he said.

Poncy and Blanchet qualified for the national competition after winning Best Actor and Best Actress at the Brandon Victor Dixon Awards in May. Fairfax Academy also received Best Musical, making its production the first in the awards’ history to sweep all three major categories.

Fairfax County Public Schools students accounted for 19 of the competition’s 24 semifinalists. Four of the five Best Musical nominees also came from FCPS schools.

Regardless of the final results, Poncy and Blanchet will leave the ceremony with a Broadway performance to their names—and Dicenzo plans to be in the audience cheering them on.

“For John and Allie, this is a once-in-a-lifetime achievement,” he said.