Carson Chesnut poses with his billboard in Time Square, Summer 2025. Photo provided by KPA.
Carson Chesnut(11), one of the lead actors in last year’s spring musical “Big Fish,” won Best Lead Actor at the 2025 KPA Bradley Awards for his performance as Will Bloom. The ceremony took place this summer. A recently established branch of the Jimmy Awards, the Bradleys helps to get Kentucky and Southern Indiana high school theater departments access to the Jimmy Awards. In a nutshell, the Jimmy’s are the high school version of Broadway’s Tony Awards.
Carson Chesnut accepting his Bradley Award. (Stephanie Rathgeber)
Chestnut was chosen to represent the Kentucky/Southern Indiana region along with his female counterpart and winner, Kennedy Julain. Finding out he won at the KPA Bradley’s was an emotional rollercoaster.
“I mean, there was definitely relief. We were all lined up on the stage, and they did this big speech for like 15 minutes, and those 15 minutes felt like 3 hours. And when they called my name, it was just a lot of relief and a lot of happiness that my work was going towards something.”
After winning the Bradleys’, Chesnut was able to go on an all-expenses-paid trip to New York City, where he stayed in the dorms at Juilliard, and his days were packed with rehearsals for the big performance.
“We didn’t have a lot of activities, but when we did, we went to see MJ: The Musical on Broadway and we went to Carmine’s, this nice restaurant, and we were able to go to the Museum of Broadway; other than that it was just a lot of practice.”
Carson Chesnut performing a song from Lin Manuel Miranda’s In the Height during the 2025 Jimmy Awards on Broadway. Miranda was a presenter at the event and stood backstage to watch the number.
Performing on Broadway is a goal many performers have; a dream that so many work towards. “It didn’t feel real,” Chesnut said when talking about his Broadway debut Performance.
“I mean, for people who are pursuing musical theater, performing on Broadway is obviously the goal, and being able to do that at such a young age, it was different; it just didn’t feel real, is how I would put it.”
Chesnut worked hard for the win he got, and it’s clear to see that he has many more coming his way.
