"South Pacific" early winner at N.Y.'s Tony Awards

By Michelle Nichols and Claudia Parsons


NEW YORK (Reuters) - "Rodgers and Hammerstein's South
Pacific" was an early winner on Sunday at Broadway's top
honors, the Tony Awards, with the musical picking up five
prizes -- for direction, scenery, costume, lighting and sound.


"In the Heights," a musical about three days in a largely
Dominican northern Manhattan neighborhood, which led the Tony
nominations with 13 nods, has nabbed three awards, including
best original score for creator and star Lin-Manuel Miranda.


"I used to dream about this moment, now I'm in it,"
Miranda, 28, said in an acceptance speech he rapped to the
crowd at New York City's Radio City Hall. "I wrote a little
show about home."


The show Miranda thought up during his second year in
college also won awards for choreography and orchestration.


"This is a dream come true," choreographer Andy
Blankenbuehler told reporters. "The thing about 'In the
Heights' is, we have loved every minute getting to this point."


"August: Osage County," the Tracy Letts play that won the
Pulitzer Prize for Drama this year, won awards for best
performance by a featured actress in a play, by Rondi Reed, and
best scenic design of a play.


"The 39 Steps," based on the Alfred Hitchcock film, also
nabbed two prizes -- for best lighting and sound design.


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 who
was a founder of the American Theatre Wing.