South Pacific wins big at Tony Awards

Rodgers and Hammerstein's South Pacific dominated Broadway's top honors, the Tony Awards, with seven prizes on Sunday, followed by the Pulitzer Prize-winning play August: Osage County with five wins.

South Pacific, nominated for 11 Tonys, picked up awards for best musical revival, best musical director (Bartlett Sher), best leading actor in a musical (Paulo Szot), scenery, costume, lighting and sound.

Sher said audiences seemed to find contemporary resonance in the show's themes of racial tension at a time of war - issues of heightened interest in the US presidential election campaign with black candidate Senator Barack Obama winning the Democratic nomination.