In the Heights named Best Musical

With no big name shows to take all the glory, the Tony awards have arrived this year with all the usual panache and fanfare. The winner of the Best Musical was "In the Heights", a joyous celebration about life, love and lottery winnings in Upper Manhattan Latino families. With its salsa-inspired rap numbers, and dynamic 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 a student at Connecticut's Wesleyan University, the show features Miranda taking center stage, bounding around dynamically and forcefully delivering the rap-dialogue in a style many musical goers may be unaccustomed. And in his acceptance speech 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."

Miranda's show is a window into modern immigrant, particularly Latino, culture, perhaps with some gloss on it, but a window nonetheless. His first Broadway show, 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 music is bright and vibrant and very modern. "In the Heights" also won awards for the score, orchestrations and choreography.

With no major blockbuster show taking 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.

Tickets for In the Heights, Tony Award winning musical, are still available through www.concert-ticketdeals.com or by following this link.