'Hamilton' wins 11 Tonys but fails to break record
NEW YORK (AP) — "Hamilton," the hip-hop stage biography of Alexander Hamilton, won the 2016 Tony Award for best new musical, capping an emotional night in which many in the Broadway community rallied to embrace the LGBT community after a shooting at a gay Florida nightclub.
Lin-Manuel Miranda's musical biography about the first U.S. treasury secretary won 11 Tonys, just short of breaking the 12-Tony record held by "The Producers."
"Hamilton" went into the night with 16 nominations and, in addition to taking the musical award, won best score, best book, direction, orchestration, choreography and best featured actor and actress statuettes for Renee Elise Goldsberry and Daveed Diggs.
The show earlier won awards for costume and lighting but lost scenic design to "She Loves Me," meaning "Hamilton" couldn't break the record haul by "The Producers."
The awards show unspooled with a heavy heart a night after a gunman killed 50 people at a gay Florida nightclub, prompting a Broadway tribute to the victims at the top of the show and a smattering of references to tolerance throughout it.
Broadway's boast of being more diverse than the Oscars was proved, with black actors winning four awards in the acting categories and whites winning the remaining four.
"Shuffle Along," the musical that explores a groundbreaking 95-year-old show, failed to win a single award, although it entered the night with 10 nominations.
The two-time Academy Award winner said: "This is a dream come true and it fills me with such happiness, even on such a sad day as this."
The show opened with the cast of "Hamilton" performing their opening number with the lyrics altered to have them all wondering why Corden — "chatting with Hollywood phonies" — had earned the honor of hosting the show.
"Hamilton" and the 38 new productions this season helped Broadway's attendance figures hit a record high, up 1.6 percent to 13.3 million ticket buyers.
The best musical Tony caps a stunning year for "Hamilton" that includes Miranda winning the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for drama, a Grammy, the Edward M. Kennedy Prize for Drama Inspired by American History and a MacArthur Foundation "genius" grant.