"Hamilton" cashes in

Associated Press

NEW YORK

“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 nightclub in Florida.

Lin-Manuel Miranda’s hip-hop-flavored biography about the first U.S. treasury secretary won 11 Tonys, just short of breaking the 12-Tony record held by “The Producers.”

Jeffrey Seller, producer of “Hamilton,” quoted the show’s lyrics when accepting the award. “Look around, look around. How lucky we are to be alive right now,” he said.

“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.

Leslie Odom Jr., who plays Aaron Burr, won best actor and thanked Miranda for “a new vision of what’s possible.” He thanked his wife, actress Nicolette Robinson, and his parents.

The show earlier won awards for costume and lighting but lost scenic design to “She Loves Me,” meaning “Hamilton” couldn’t break the 12-statuette record haul by “The Producers.” Still, few shows get introduced by a sitting president, as Barack and Michelle Obama did for the performance by the show’s cast.

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.

Host James Corden, his back to the audience, spoke to viewers when he dedicated the night to celebrating the diversity of Broadway. “Hate will never win. Together we have to make sure of that. Tonight’s show stands as a symbol and a celebration of that principle,” he said.

In response to the shooting Sunday that left at least 50 people dead in a crowded nightclub in Orlando, “Hamilton” dropped its use of muskets in its performance. Many stars also wore a silver ribbon to show solidarity.

But for much of the telecast, the mood was light and typical of an awards show.

Corden, the “The Late Late Show” host, had some quips for the theater-loving audience: “This is like the Super Bowl for people who don’t know what the Super Bowl is,” he said at one point. At another: “Think of tonight as the Oscars, but with diversity.” He later flirted with Oprah Winfrey.

Donald Trump was a frequent target. Nathan Lane made a crack about Trump University and Emilio Estefan insisted that his all-Latin cast for “On Your Feet!” were all in the U.S. legally.

Corden at one point suggested there were so many diverse performers on the show that the Republican candidate would want to put a wall around the theater.

There also was a joke about Trump starring in “The Book of Moron.” To be fair, Glenn Close mocked Hillary Clinton in the fictional show “A Clinton Line.”