"South Pacific" early winner at Tony Awards

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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 honours, 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 neighbourhood, 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 .....continued below

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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.

Around 750 people from the theatre industry -- from actors, to directors to journalists -- vote for the Tony Awards.

Comedian and talk show host Whoopi Goldberg hosted the televised awards ceremony.

Actor Daniel Radcliffe, star of the "Harry Potter" films, walked the red carpet ahead of his planned Broadway debut later this year in "Equus." He has told Reuters he is nervous about reprising the role he first performed in London’s West End and during which he appears naked on stage.

Composer Stephen Sondheim, who wrote the music and lyrics for such shows as "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum," "Company," "Sweeney Todd" and "Sunday in the Park with George," was given a special Tony Award for lifetime achievement in the theatre.

The late Robert Russell Bennett, who orchestrated musicals including "South Pacific," "Oklahoma!," "The Sound of Music" and "My Fair Lady," was honoured in recognition of his historic contribution to American musical theatre in the field of orchestrations.

The Chicago Shakespeare Theater received the Regional Theatre Tony Award.

(Additional reporting by Claudia Parsons and Carmen Perry)

Reuters/Nielsen