The Recording Academy has revealed the nominations for the 2025 Grammy Awards. The awards body, which recognizes excellence in the music industry, comprises 94 competitive categories. The cast albums from six of the productions that opened on Broadway in the 2023-2024 season were recognized in the Best Musical Theater Album category. The 2025 awards will recognize recordings released between Sept. 16, 2023, and Aug. 30 2024.
Best Musical Theater Album
The nominees in this category include the original cast recordings of “Hell’s Kitchen,” “Merrily We Roll Along,” “Suffs,” “The Notebook,” “The Outsiders” and “The Wiz.” Per Grammy rules, the album’s producers, composers, lyricists and up to four principal vocalists are eligible to receive the nomination. For this year’s nods, principal vocalists were named for “Hell’s Kitchen,” “Merrily We Roll Along,” “The Outsiders” and “The Wiz.”
Per Grammy rules, the presence of six nominees in the category indicates that the Academy received 40 submissions or more (guaranteeing five nominees) and a tie (which led to six). For context, this category had five nominees at the 2024 Grammy Awards earlier this year.
However, unlike last year, not every show represented in this category was nominated for Best Musical or Best Revival of a Musical at the 2024 Tony Awards. “The Outsiders” took home the Best Musical Tony, alongside fellow nominees “Hell’s Kitchen,” “Suffs” and “The Notebook,” while “Merrily” was the winner of Best Revival of a Musical.
Notably, “Suffs” won the Tony for best original score (“Hell’s Kitchen,” “Merrily” and “The Wiz” were ineligible; “The Notebook” was not nominated); and “Merrily” won best orchestrations.
Broadway in other categories
In addition to the Best Musical Theater Album, several Broadway names popped up in additional categories.
Charlie Rosen (, who has won Tony Awards as part of the orchestration teams for 2019’s “Moulin Rouge!” and 2022’s “Some Like it Hot,”) was nominated in the Best Arrangement, Instrument and Vocals category. Rosen was acknowledged for serving as music arranger, alongside Jake Silverman for “Last Surprise (From ‘Persona 5’).”
Broadway veteran Aaron Lazar, whose Main Stem credits include “Les Misérables,” “The Light in the Piazza” and “The Last Ship,” received a Best Traditional Pop Album nomination for his album “Impossible Dream.” The album, whose proceeds benefit the ALS Network, includes songs performed by Lazar and other Broadway talent, such as Kristin Chenoweth, Shoshana Bean, Brian Stokes Mitchell and Lin-Manuel Miranda.
The film adaptation of Broadway’s “The Color Purple” was named in two categories: Best Compilation Soundtrack for Visual Media and Best Score Soundtrack for Visual Media.
Tony nominee Shane McAnally, who received two 2024 Grammy nominations, including one for Best Musical Theater Album as a composer of “Shucked,” was nominated this year in the Best Country Song Category for “The Architect." McAnally co-wrote the song with Kacey Musgraves and Josh Osborne.
The Best Audio Book, Narration and Storytelling category included a Tony nominee and a Tony honoree in its slate. Dolly Parton, a Tony nominee for scoring “9 to 5” and composer and co-book writer of the Broadway bound “Hello, I’m Dolly” musical, was nominated for narrating the audiobook for her book “Behind the Seams: My Life in Rhinestones.” Barbra Streisand, a 1970 Special Tony Award recipient, was similarly nominated for narrating her autobiography “My Name is Barbra.”
Sabrina Carpenter, who made her Main Stem debut replacing in the role of Cady Heron in “Mean Girls” two days before the pandemic-induced suspension of Broadway performances, received nominations in six categories: Record of the Year, Album of the Year, Song of the Year, Best New Artist, Best Pop Solo Performance, Best Pop Vocal Album.
Ariana Grande, who made her Broadway debut 2008’s “13” and will play Glinda in the upcoming motion picture adaptation of “Wicked,” earned three nominations: Best Pop Duo/Group Performance (for “the boy is mine”), Best Pop Vocal Album (“eternal sunshine”) and Best Dance Pop Recording (“yes, and?”).
Broadway was represented in two rap categories. Common, who appeared in 2022’s “Between Riverside and Crazy” and was a co-producer on the 2024 revival of “The Wiz,” was nominated for Best Rap Performance (for “When the Sun Shines Again”) and “Best Rap Album (for “The Auditorium, Vol. 1”).
Jack Antonoff, who composed original music for the currently running revival of “Romeo + Juliet,” received five nominations across three categories. He was nominated twice in the Song of Year category as part of the songwriting teams for Carpenter’s “Please Please Please” and Taylor Swift’s “Fortnight.” He was twice nominated in the Album of the Year category for producing the respective albums of these singles. Finally, he was nominated for Record of the year for “Fortnight.”
Green Day, whose concept album “American Idiot” was the basis for the 2010 musical of the same name, was honored in three categories. Band members Billie Joe Armstrong, Tré Cool and Mike Dirnt received nominations for Best Rock Performance, Best Rock Song and Best Rock Album. The Best Tropical Latin Album category acknowledged Marc Anthony for “Muevense.” The four-time Grammy winner starred in 1998’s “The Capeman.” Usher, who played a tenure as Billy Flynn in “Chicago” in 2006, received a nomination for Best R&B Album for “Coming Home.” John Legend, a 2017 Best Revival of a Play Tony winner as a producer of “Jitney,” received nods for Best Children’s Music Album and Best Arrangement, Instrumental or A Cappella. This marks Legend’s 32nd Grammy nomination, however, it is his first in this category.
Jonny Black and Giorgia Sage, the art directors who designed the packaging of the Avett Brothers’ self-titled album were recognized in the Best Recording Package category. The Avett Brothers-scored “Swept Away” is set to open at the Longacre Theatre on Nov. 19.
The 67th annual ceremony will take place on Feb. 2, 2025, at the Cripto.com Arena in Los Angeles. The honors will air live on CBS and stream live and on-demand on Paramount+ at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT.
The full slate of nominees for Best Musical Theater Album and Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album — both in the field of Jazz, Traditional Pop, Contemporary Instrumental & Musical Theater — can be found below. The complete nominations can be found here.
Best Musical Theater Album
“Hell’s Kitchen”
Shoshana Bean, Brandon Victor Dixon, Kecia Lewis and Maleah Joi Moon, principal vocalists; Adam Blackstone, Alicia Keys and Tom Kitt, producers (Alicia Keys, composer and lyricist) (Original Broadway Cast)
“Merrily We Roll Along”
Jonathan Groff, Lindsay Mendez and Daniel Radcliffe, principal vocalists; David Caddick, Joel Fram, Maria Friedman and David Lai, producers (Stephen Sondheim, composer and lyricist) (New Broadway Cast)
“The Notebook”
John Clancy, Carmel Dean, Kurt Deutsch, Derik Lee, Kevin McCollum and Ingrid Michaelson, producers; Ingrid Michaelson, composer and lyricist (Original Broadway Cast)
“The Outsiders”
Joshua Boone, Brent Comer, Brody Grant and Sky Lakota-Lynch, principal vocalists; Zach Chance, Jonathan Clay, Matt Hinkley, Justin Levine and Lawrence Manchester, producers; Zach Chance, Jonathan Clay and Justin Levine, composers and lyricists (Original Broadway Cast)
“Suffs”
Andrea Grody, Dean Sharenow and Shaina Taub, producers; Shaina Taub, composer and lyricist (Original Broadway Cast)
“The Wiz”
Wayne Brady, Deborah Cox, Nichelle Lewis and Avery Wilson, principal vocalists; Joseph Joubert, Allen René Louis and Lawrence Manchester, producers (Charlie Smalls, composer and lyricist) (2024 Broadway Cast Recording)
Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album
“À Fleur De Peau”
Cyrille Aimée
“Visions”
Norah Jones
“Good Together”
Lake Street Dive
“Impossible Dream”
Aaron Lazar
“Christmas Wish”
Gregory Porter
Correction: An earlier version misstated the Broadway season during which the shows corresponding to the nominated musical theater albums debuted. This has been corrected.
