Hamilton garners record 16 Tony nods

Lin-Manuel Miranda (foreground) and cast perform in Hamilton.
Lin-Manuel Miranda (foreground) and cast perform in Hamilton.

NEW YORK -- The megahit musical Hamilton by Lin-Manuel Miranda has grabbed a record-breaking 16 Tony Award nominations, the biggest haul in Broadway history, breaking the 15-nominations record held jointly by The Producers and Billy Elliot the Musical.

Hamilton earned nods in all 13 categories it was eligible.

"I feel really grateful that they kind of spread the wealth," Miranda said. "Theater requires collaboration and I'm lucky to be working with some of the best people in their respective fields alive right now."

The awards will be handed out June 12, with James Corden hosting from the Beacon Theatre.

At that ceremony, Hamilton will compete for Broadway's biggest crown -- best new musical -- with Bright Star, School of Rock, Shuffle Along and Waitress.

The other top nominees Tuesday were Shuffle Along, which got 10 nominations, and the revival of She Loves Me, which earned eight.

Hamilton earned seven acting nominations -- Miranda, Leslie Odom Jr., Phillipa Soo, Daveed Diggs, Jonathan Groff, Christopher Jackson and Renee Elise Goldsberry. It also earned nominations for best musical, scenic design, costumes, lighting design, direction, choreography, orchestrations, best book and best original score.

The musical has already won the Pulitzer Prize for drama, a Grammy, the Edward M. Kennedy Prize for Drama Inspired by American History and a MacArthur Foundation "genius" grant.

There were a few surprises Tuesday, including Jennifer Hudson being overlooked in The Color Purple and the hit On Your Feet!, which follows the lives of Gloria and Emilio Estefan, earned just a choreography nod.

Waitress, a musical with songs by singer-songwriter Sara Bareilles that is adapted from a 2007 film about a waitress trapped in a small-town diner and a loveless marriage, earned four nominations.

"I'm so grateful to have found my way back toward the theater community. I grew up doing theater. It's how I learned to listen to music," said Bareilles, who got a nod for music and lyrics. "This experience of working on Waitress has so changed my life in personal ways and professional ways."

School of Rock, the adaptation by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Julian Fellowes of the Jack Black-led movie about a wannabe rocker who enlists fifth-graders to form a rock group, earned four nominations, including best musical, book, original score and best leading man in Alex Brightman.

"It's a funny season this one, isn't it," said Lloyd Webber from London. "As you know, it's the 'Hamil-Tonys.' We've gotten everything we could have hoped for -- and that's all we'll get. But it's lovely in this season of all seasons to get score and musical and book. We're terribly pleased."

Bright Star, a complex love story set against the American South by comedian Steve Martin and Grammy-winning singer-songwriter Edie Brickell, earned five nominations and few were more pleased than Martin, who earned his first Tony nod.

"This is very, very exciting to me. It's almost, like your emotions betray you, you don't allow yourself to know how excited you are but then when it happens, the body just takes over and you think, 'Gee, I must have really been nervous about this!' So I am so pleased," he said.

The best-play category is composed of Danai Gurira's Eclipsed, Floria Zeller's The Father, Stephen Karam's The Humans and Mike Bartlett's King Charles III.

Zachary Levi, former star of NBC's Chuck making his second Broadway appearance, earned a leading man nomination for She Loves Me. The one-time theater geek who was lured away by TV said it was surreal to be embraced by Broadway.

"This makes me feel like Ariel in The Little Mermaid -- a part of their world," said Levi. "I'm gobsmacked. I never use that word but I'm gobsmacked."

Shuffle Along, earned nominations for best musical, best book, scenic design, lighting and costumes, direction by George C. Wolfe, choreography by Savion Glover, orchestrations, and acting turns by Adrienne Warren and Brandon Victor Dixon.

Dixon said he was surprised some of his co-stars -- including Brian Stokes Mitchell, Billy Porter, Joshua Henry and McDonald -- didn't get nods. "I was pretty shocked," he said.

"But I'm honored to represent them and we're going to go into this Tony season and we're going to take a number of those awards." He added: "I'm happy to stand toe-to-toe with Hamilton."

Information for this article was contributed by Jocelyn Noveck of The Associated Press.

A Section on 05/04/2016

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