In a season ripe with memorable musicals, the first-ever Broadway revival of Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein's World War II story, South Pacific, led the nominations for best revival of a musical, with 11.

The straight-play category was topped by August: Osage County, a skewering, often hilarious look at a family in crisis. The play, an import from Chicago's Steppenwolf Theatre, has created a buzz that continues, largely because of the raw power Tracy Letts unleashes in his script, and is considered a shoo-in for the best-play Tony.

August: Osage County was named best play by the New York Drama Critics' Circle on Monday. The group, composed of Broadway critics, gave best-musical honors to Passing Strange, a new hip-hop musical about an African-American teenager who leaves California to find himself among Europe's avant-garde. Passing Strange followed In the Heights in new-musical Tony nominations Tuesday, with seven.

In the Heights, about the gentrification of the Latino neighborhood of Washington Heights, at the northern tip of Manhattan, mixes salsa, hip-hop, rap and other musical styles, and features some of Broadway's most intriguing dancing. In addition to its best-musical nod, In the Heights received nominations for its music and lyrics by Lin-Manuel Miranda, who stars in the show and was nomination as best musical actor. Miranda began working on the show while a student at Wesleyan University.

The script for In the Heights earned Philadelphia playwright Quiara Alegría Hudes a nomination for best book of a musical. Hudes, 30, spent four years working and reworking the dialogue, while writing other plays, and says that much of the character development and the plot comes out of her experiences in North Philadelphia, where her parents own businesses and ran the popular El Viejo San Juan, formerly a restaurant on Girard Avenue.

Andy Blankenbuehler's choreography for the show, which sometimes engages cast members in simultaneous individual dances, is among its nominations.