"South Pacific," nominated for 11 Tonys, picked up awards for best musical revival, best musical director (Bartlett Sher), best leading actor in a musical (Paulo Szot), scenery, costume, lighting and sound.

Bartlett Sher thanked the show's legendary creators, composer Richard Rodgers, lyricist Oscar Hammerstein II, its original director and co-author Joshua Logan and James Michener, who wrote the novel on which the show was based.

"They were kind of incredible men, because they seem to teach me particularly that in a way I wasn't only an artist but I was also a citizen," Sher said.

"August: Osage County," the Tracy Letts play that won the Pulitzer Prize for drama this year, won Tonys for best play, best featured actress (Rondi Reed), best leading actress (Deanna Dunagan), scenic design and direction (Anna D. Shapiro).

Broadway veteran Patti LuPone won best actress in a musical for her role in "Gypsy," while her co-stars won best featured actor (Boyd Gaines) and featured actress (Laura Benanti).

The show is a revival of a musical suggested by a stripper's memoir with Stephen Sondheim lyrics. It was the second Tony for LuPone, who last won for "Evita."

"In the Heights," a musical about a largely Dominican northern Manhattan neighborhood, won three awards, including best original score for creator and star Lin-Manuel Miranda. It had led the Tony nominations with 13.

But Stew, the star and co-creator of "Passing Strange" took the prize for best book of a musical.

"Boeing-Boeing," the classic farce which is the most performed French play, won best revival of a play.

The CBS telecast of the 62nd annual Tony Awards from Radio City Music Hall opened with an elaborate number from Disney's "The Lion King," now in its second decade on Broadway, and finished with host Whoopi Goldberg, walking out dressed as the crab from another Disney musical "The Little Mermaid."

The Tony Awards were established in 1947 and are named for Antoinette 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.