Tony Award Countdown: 30 Years In 30 Days, Broadway Meets IN THE HEIGHTS' Lin-Manuel Miranda, 2008

Welcome to BroadwayWorld's Tony Award Countdown: 30 Years In 30 Days, a look at some of the Tony Awards' most memorable moments from the past three decades.

All that most people knew about IN THE HEIGHTS when it began previewing at Off-Broadway's far-off 37 Arts Theatre was that it was a rap musical starring some unknown guy who wrote the score. Some anticipated a strong whiff of "vanity project" in the air, but when the lights went up on Washington Heights and Lin-Manuel Miranda's clever lyrics, infectious music and Rodgers and Hammerstein-like sincerity towards community and home filled the theatre, there was no doubt that a Broadway transfer was in order.

From ragtime to jazz to rock and to soul, there has always been resistance when a new popular music form is introduced to musical theatre, but Miranda demonstrated how the lyric-focused nature and the rapid tempi of rap makes it an ideal style for an intelligent, story-and-character-based score.

The American Theatre Wing's 70th Annual Tony Awards, hosted by Tony Award winner James Corden, will air on the CBS Television Network on Sunday, June 12, 2016 (8:00-11:00 PM, ET/delayed PT) live from the Beacon Theatre in New York City.