Moulin Rouge! The Musical, a jukebox adaptation of Baz Luhrmann's hyperactive 2001 movie, won the best new musical crown at the Tony Awards in New York on Sunday night.

On Sunday, Broadway looked back to honour shows shuttered by Covid-19, mourn its fallen and also look forward to welcoming audiences again.

The show, which is about the goings-on in a turn-of-the-century Parisian nightclub, has been updated with tunes like Single Ladies and Firework alongside the big hit Lady Marmalade, and it won 10 Tonys, nearly breaking the record set by The Producers, which won 12.

Moulin Rouge! The Musical won for scenic design, costume, lighting, sound design, orchestrations, and a featured acting Tony for Broadway favourite Danny Burstein.

Sonya Tayeh won for choreography in her Broadway debut, and Alex Timbers won the trophy for best direction of a musical.

Aaron Tveit won the award for best leading actor in a musical for Moulin Rouge! The Musical, because he was the only person nominated in the category.

Moulin Rouge! The Musical Producer Carmen Pavlovic struck a philosophical note in her acceptance speech, sharing the award with all the shows that struggled in the past 18-month shutdown.

"It feels a little odd to me to be talking about one show as best musical. I feel that every show of last season deserves to be thought of as the best musical," she said.

"The shows that opened, the shows that closed not to return, the shows that nearly opened. And of course, the shows that paused and are fortunate enough to be reborn - best musical is all of those shows."

The Inheritance by Matthew Lopez was named the best new play and won three other awards, and Charles Fuller's A Soldier’s Play won best play revival and an acting award.

Lopez’s two-part, seven-hour epic uses Howards End as a starting point for a play that looks at gay life in the early 21st century.

It also yielded wins for Andrew Burnap as best actor in a play, Stephen Daldry as best director, and Lois Smith as best performance by an actress in a featured role in a play.

Thomas Kirdahy, a producer, dedicated the award to his late husband, the playwright Terrence McNally.

Lopez, the first Latin writer to win in the category, urged more plays to be produced from the Latin community. "We have so many stories inside us aching to come out. Let us tell you our stories," he said.

The pandemic-delayed telecast kicked off with an energetic performance of You Can’t Stop The Beat from original Broadway cast members of Hairspray and Ali Stroker sang What I Did For Love from A Chorus Line.

Jennifer Holliday also took the stage to deliver an unforgettable rendition of And I’m Telling You I’m Not Going from the musical Dreamgirls.

The singers performed for a masked and appreciative audience at a packed Winter Garden Theatre.

Host Audra McDonald got a standing ovation when she took the stage. "You can’t stop the beat. The heart of New York City," she said.

Source: Associated Press