Theater

NEW YORK — "In the Heights," a bold new musical about Hispanics in Upper Manhattan, captured 13 Tony nominations, and the critically praised revival of Rodgers and Hammerstein's "South Pacific" earned 12 as the 62nd annual Tony Awards nominees were unveiled Tuesday.

"August: Osage County," the Pulitzer Prize-winning play about a dysfunctional Oklahoma family, captured seven nominations, followed by "The 39 Steps," a humorous reenactment of Alfred Hitchcock's classic film, which received six.

The awards, to be announced at Radio City Music Hall on June 15, featured a mixture of nominees for highly praised dramatic revivals such as "Macbeth" and "Les Liaisons Dangereuses," along with well-known musicals, such as "Gypsy" and "Sunday in the Park With George." A special Tony Award for lifetime achievement in the theater will be presented to Stephen Sondheim at the award ceremony, to be broadcast on CBS and hosted by Whoopi Goldberg.

But a new breeze was also blowing down the Great White Way, with "In the Heights" dominating the performance categories and seven nominations for "Passing Strange," a rock and blues-infused musical about a black musician from Los Angeles who sets off on a quest for artistic discovery in Amsterdam and Berlin. There were notable omissions in the nominations announced at Lincoln Center: The all-black revival of Tennessee Williams' "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof," a box-office hit starring Terence Howard and James Earl Jones, received no nominations, and "West Wing" creator Aaron Sorkin's "The Farnsworth Invention" also was passed over.

Two of the season's most expensive musical productions — "The New Mel Brooks Musical Young Frankenstein" and Walt Disney's "The Little Mermaid" — received only five nominations between them.

The 2008 nominees for best new musical included "In the Heights"; "Passing Strange"; "Xanadu," a musical based on the 1980 cult classic film; and "Cry-Baby." For best new play, the nominees were Tracy Letts' "August: Osage County," Tom Stoppard's "Rock 'n' Roll," Conor McPherson's "The Seafarer" and Patrick Barlow's "The 39 Steps."

In the race for best musical revival, the nominees are "South Pacific," "Gypsy," "Sunday in the Park With George" and "Grease." The contestants for best revival of a play are "Macbeth," "Les Liaisons Dangereuses," "The Homecoming" and "Boeing-Boeing."