Tonys to honor best of a strong field tonight

Two remarkable evenings of theater -

August: Osage County

, an engrossing play about a beyond-dysfunctional family, and

In the Heights

, which deftly employs several musical genres to chart a changing Latino neighborhood - are expected to walk away tonight with Broadway's most coveted prize, the Tony.

They are highly favored to win the awards for best new play and new musical, but whether they'll dominate the night is less clear. Though they top the nominations for play and musical categories - with seven and 13, respectively - it's been a great season, and this year's awards are highly competitive.

The excellence on stage this season was interrupted in the fall by a 19-day stagehands' strike that darkened most of Broadway's 39 theaters. When it ended, audiences streamed back to a commercial theater district where new openings had been generating buzz; end-of-season figures released by the Broadway League, the trade association, show the strike didn't make a major dent.

Thirty-six new productions, including revivals, opened on Broadway between May 28, 2007, and May 25, 2008 - one more than the previous season. An additional 15 shows continued long runs. And although ticket grosses and paid attendance dropped, largely because of the strike, the decline was far from precipitous.

Broadway grossed $937.5 million, off $1 million from the previous season. Paid attendance at all Broadway shows was 12.27 million, down slightly from the previous season's 12.3 million. That figure includes an estimated 800,000 tickets purchased by Pennsylvanians, mostly from metropolitan Philadelphia, and the region's South Jersey residents.

Tonight's Tonys focus more on art than commerce. The ceremony will be hosted by Whoopi Goldberg from Radio City Music Hall for three hours beginning at 8 on CBS3; a pre-telecast show will stream live on

» READ MORE: www.tonyawards.com

, from 7 to 8.

The 62d annual awards show features performances from 13 current musicals - including, for the first time, pieces from all of the season's eight new ones. The Broadway League, which sponsors the awards along with the American Theatre Wing, has gathered a slew of big-name presenters - some currently on Broadway - including David Hyde Pierce, Laura Linney, Marisa Tomei, John Waters, Lily Tomlin, Alec Baldwin, Liza Minnelli, Brooke Shields, and Harry Connick Jr. A special lifetime-achievement award goes to composer/lyricist Stephen Sondheim and another to the late Robert Russell Bennett, who orchestrated many musicals, including

South Pacific

, currently in revival.

Tony winners are chosen by 795 theater professionals, producers and critics, including myself. Here's a rundown of major categories and nominees to watch for tonight, and those I voted for.

Best play.

August: Osage County

, is a skewering, often hilarious look at a family in crisis, a 31/2-hour drama that leaves audiences wishing it were longer. This import from Chicago's Steppenwolf Theatre got my vote for the raw power Tracy Letts unleashes in his script and the production's exceptional acting. It's about a family whose patriarch suddenly disappears and whose neuroses, animosities, and little moments of real devotion come to the fore. I also voted for Anna D. Shapiro as best play director.

August

is up against Tom Stoppard's

Rock 'n' Roll

, which considers the fall of communism in Czechoslovakia and the rise of rock music in a complicated metaphor. Philadelphia's Wilma Theatre, which has a solid relationship with Stoppard, will produce it here next fall.

Irish playwright Conor McPherson's absorbing drunken night of devil-may-care card-playing,

The Seafarer

, also is nominated; Philadelphia's Arden Theatre has acquired rights to produce it here next season.

The 39 Steps,

a kinetic, gag-a-minute tribute to Alfred Hitchcock's movie-making and the thriller genre, rounds out the best-play category.

Best musical.

In the Heights

is the exuberant new hit conceived by actor-composer Lin-Manuel Miranda when he was in college; he wrote the music and lyrics and stars in it. The show's book is by Philadelphia playwright Quiara Alegría Hudes.

In the Heights

has been criticized by some for giving a rose-colored look at Washington Heights, but that's beside the point - it's about family and community relationships being forced into changes as a neighborhood is gentrified, and it has a lovely narrative arc. I voted for the show, for Hudes (up for best musical book), for Miranda's score (he's also up for best musical actor, but not my choice), and for Andy Blankenbuehler's dynamic choreography.

Also nominated are

Xanadu

, a zesty show on skates that takes a horrible movie and turns it into something special;

Cry-Baby

, another John Waters movie makeover, with boundless Broadway energy but no soul; and

Passing Strange

, conceived by a charming one-named performer, Stew, who narrates the journey of an African American teen immersing himself Europe's avant-garde.

Best play revival.

This is one of this year's tough categories - all four nominees were splendid examples of thinking through, or rethinking, an old work. My vote went to the brilliantly staged

Macbeth

starring Patrick Stewart. It's up against the sensual, revealing

Les Liaisons Dangereuses

, a galvanizing rendering of Harold Pinter's

The Homecoming

, and the sparkling remounting of

Boeing-Boeing

, a French comedy that didn't work here the first time around but now renders audiences speechless with laughter.

Best musical revival.

This is another category that forces a choice between three stand-out productions of vaunted Broadway works: a spellbinding

Gypsy

, directed by Arthur Laurents, who wrote its book; Sondheim's

Sunday in the Park With George

, in the first production of the show that made sense to me; or director Bartlett Sher's magical

South Pacific

. A fourth, almost non-contender, is the listless revival of

Grease

.

I went with

South Pacific

, which cast a spell on me for days, and voted for

George

's Sam Buntrock as best musical director. His multimedia concept for that show, which at one point has the main character talking with his virtual self on stage, is stunning.

Best actor in a play.

The awesomely talented Laurence Fishburne, playing chief justice Thurgood Marshall in the one-man show

Thurgood

, is my choice. He's up against Patrick Stewart's

Macbeth

; the magnetic Ben Daniels as a wily tail-chaser in

Les Liaisons Dangereuses

; Rufus Sewell in a fine portrayal in

Rock 'n' Roll

; and a screamingly funny Mark Rylance in

Boeing-Boeing

.

Best actress in a play.

Another highly competitive race, and Deanna Dunagan gets my vote as the pill-popping, combative, other-worldly matriarch, Violet, in

August: Osage County

. Competing are fellow cast member Amy Morton, who brightly plays another family member; S. Epatha Merkerson, who gave a wonderfully considered performance in

Come Back, Little Sheba

; Eve Best, who made the mystery of

The Homecoming

all the more strange; and Kate Fleetwood, an altogether fascinating Lady Macbeth.

Best actor in a musical.

The Brazilian opera singer Paulo Szot, in his Broadway debut, gets my vote for making

South Pacific

's Emile de Becque all his own, with a voice that sweeps you away. His competition is Stew of

Passing Strange

,

Heights

' Miranda,

Sunday in the Park with George

's excellent Daniel Evans, and

A Catered Affair

's powerful Tom Wopat.

Best actress in a musical.

Yikes! Another close call among five who don't just command a stage but own it. I went with

Gypsy

's Patti LuPone, in her career-high-mark portrayal of the world's pushiest stage mother. She is a life-force incomparable to anyone else now on Broadway. But don't overlook Kelli O'Hara,

South Pacific

's sweet and genuine Nellie Forbush; Kerry Butler, the roller-skating muse of

Xanadu

; Jenna Russell, for finely crafted work in

Sunday in the Park

; and Faith Prince, long-suffering mom in

A Catered Affair

.

Others.

In addition to

In the Heights

' Hudes, four Tony nominees have local or nearby connections. Douglas Carter Beane, facing Hudes in the best musical book category for

Xanadu

, hails from Wyomissing in Berks County. Christopher Fitzgerald, the big laugh-getter as Igor In

Young Frankenstein

, is a Bryn Mawr native, nominated for best featured actor in a musical. Christopher Gattelli, nominated as best choreographer for

South Pacific

, is from Bristol. And

August

's scenic designer, Todd Rosenthal, who has my vote for his memorable multi-story set, is a graduate of Moore College of Art and Design.