'Heights' and 'Osage County' are Tonys' best musical, play

0 Comments | Philadelphia Inquirer, The, June, 2008 | by Howard Shapiro Inquirer Staff Writer

A neighborhood and a family - both in sweeping transition - are the subjects of this Broadway season's best-musical and best-play Tony Award winners, honored last night at Radio City Music Hall in New York City. The exuberant  In the Heights , which uses several musical genres to trace the gentrification of a Latino neighborhood in Manhattan, won for best musical.

Lin-Manuel Miranda, 28, who conceived the show while in college, also won, for best musical score, as did choreographer Andy Blankenbuehler. The show won for its orchestrations as well. Tracy Letts'  August: Osage County , considered a shoo-in for best play, won that award and four others. The searing, funny play, brought to Broadway from Chicago's Steppenwolf Theatre Company, is about a family for whom ...