'Hamilton' bags 16 Tony nominations - including Philly's own Leslie Odom Jr.
The Tony Awards are being nicknamed the "Hamil-Tonys" this year in recognition that Hamilton is the show to beat.
NEW YORK - The Tony Awards are being nicknamed the "Hamil-Tonys" this year in recognition that Hamilton is the show to beat.
Lin-Manuel Miranda's hip-hop-flavored biography about the first U.S. Treasury secretary earned 16 Tony Award nominations, breaking the 15-nominations record held jointly by The Producers and Billy Elliot the Musical. Hamilton earned nods in all 13 categories for which it was eligible.
Miranda is prominent in the best leading actor category. But so is Leslie Odom Jr., who plays Aaron Burr. Odom grew up in the East Oak Lane section of Philadelphia, sang solos at Germantown's Canaan Baptist Church, and attended Masterman. In a December 2015 interview with the Inquirer, Odom said: "I grew up in Philadelphia in a time where we took it for granted that we were supposed to be young and gifted and black. It was a culture of excellence - and all my friends were more talented than I was."
Hamilton and Burr faced off on that fateful day in July 1804 in Weehawken, N.J. - and Miranda and Odom will face off for best leading actor. The two shared a dressing room when the play was Off-Broadway and are close friends.
"I wouldn't have it any other way," Odom said. "I look in Lin's eyes every single night and I see the truth and the vulnerability that he comes to the stage with. And so I am obviously thrilled to be included, but it wouldn't have made sense to me any other way."
He opens Hamilton with the unforgettable first lines: "How does a bastard, orphan, son of a whore and a Scotsman, dropped in the middle of a forgotten spot in the Caribbean by providence, impoverished, in squalor, grow up to be a hero and a scholar?"
The awards will be handed out June 12, with James Corden playing host from the Beacon Theatre.
Up for best new musical with Hamilton are Bright Star, School of Rock, Shuffle Along, and Waitress.
Other Hamilton stars nominated for acting awards include Phillipa Soo, Daveed Diggs, Jonathan Groff, Christopher Jackson, and Renée Elise Goldsberry. It also earned nominations for best musical, scenic design, costumes, lighting design, 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.
For a list of Tony nominations: www.tonyawards.com