Newcomer “In the Heights” scoops Best Musical

It was a blockbuster-free zone when the Tony awards have arrived this year with all the usual excitement and promise. The winner of the Best Musical was “In the Heights”, a joyous celebration about chasing the American Dream and lottery winnings in Upper Manhattan Latino families. With its high-energy rap numbers, and energetic dancers and music, the show has been a hit amongst theater goers and critics alike.

Created by 28 year old Lin-Manuel Miranda while he was in college, the show features Miranda taking center stage, bounding around exuberantly and forcefully delivering the rap-dialogue in a style many musical goers may be unaccustomed. And when taking the stage to accept his award he continued the style telling the audience “I used to dream about this moment, now I’m in it,” “Tell the conductor to hold the baton a minute.” And with a nod to Broadway legend Stephen Sondheim, Miranda raps: “Look, Mr. Sondheim, I made a hat where there never was a hat and it’s a Latin hat at that.”

He has created a window into modern Latino culture, perhaps with some gloss on it, but a window nonetheless. A relative newcomer to the theater, Miranda wrote the score and all of the songs, as well as playing the lead role. He simply lights up the stage with a dazzling display and draws the viewer in. “In the Heights” played off-Broadway for a season. The orchestration of the show is bright and vibrant and very modern. “In the Heights” also won awards for the score, orchestrations and choreography.

No standout show took all the awards this year, the prizes were shared around. Winners in the recent past such as Jersey Boys and Wicked are still playing to packed houses around Broadway. The revival musical “South Pacific” picked up seven wins including best revival and best actor — for the lead, Paulo Szot — in addition to four design awards and an award for best director, Bartlett Sher.

Other winners were:

Best play: August: Osage County
Best revival of a musical: South Pacific
Best performance by a leading actor in a musical: Paulo Szot, South Pacific
Best performance by a leading actress in a musical: Patti LuPone, Gypsy

This years Tony Awards was hosted by comedian and talk show host Whoopi Goldberg. Around 790 people from the theater industry — from actors, to directors to journalists — vote for the Tony Awards. The Tony Awards were established in 1947 and are named after Atoinette Perry, whose nickname was Toni. Perry, who died in 1946, was an actress, stage director and philanthropist.

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