By Della Hasselle
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
MANHATTAN — "The Book of Mormon" swept the Tony Awards Sunday night, taking home "Best Musical" and eight other awards.
The musical's writers, South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone, collaborated with "Avenue Q" co-writer Robert Lopez to put together the comedy about a pair of Mormon missionaries in a war-torn, AIDS ravaged African nation.
The trio also took home the award for Best Book of a Musical and Best Score for the controversial show.
Accepting the awards at the Beacon Theatre ceremony, Parker thanked his South Park fans — and a less expected mentor. Holding the award in his hand, Parker thanked his "co-writer" Joseph Smith, founder of the Mormon religion.
"You did it, Joseph!" he said, looking skyward. "You got the Tony!"
"War Horse," a tale about horses during World War I that's told using puppetry, also did well, taking home five Tonys, including "Best Play."
On another note, The Tony Awards got emotional Sunday night when Larry Kramer and Daryl Roth accepted the award for Best Revived Play for "The Normal Heart," a serious drama about the AIDS epidemic in New York in the mid 1980s.
"A quarter-century after it burst onto the stage and forever changed a generation, the issues it tackles are more relevant than ever," the Tony Awards website says about the play.
The plot focuses as much on the epidemic as it does on the political and media response to the issue during that time.
"To gay people everywhere whom I love so, the Normal Heart is our history," activist Kramer said in his acceptance speech about the play, which first appeared in the Public Theater in 1985.
"I could not have written it, had so many of us not so needlessly died," he added.
Other winners include New York-based actress Sutton Foster, who won Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role for her work in "Anything Goes," and Norbert Leo Butz, who won Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role for the musical "Catch Me if You Can."
Mark Rylance also won Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Play for his work in "Jerusalem," and Frances McDormand won Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Play for her work in "Good People."
For a complete list of the winners by category and videos of the acceptance speeches, please visit the Tony Awards website.
