Today’s main event is without a doubt the highly anticipated American Theatre Wing’s Tony Awards. The awards made their official debut back in 1947 and since then thier popularity was constantly on the rise.

This year’s show will be hosted by the popular actress Whoopi Goldberg and will surely turn out to be a memorable experience.

One of the nominees expected to win at this year’s Tony Awards is the musical “Passing Strange”. The show tells the story of a young black rocker and his quest for finding his identity, presenting different stages of his life in places such as South Central Los Angeles, Amsterdam and Berlin.

The show is up for seven Tony awards, including best musical and his 46-year-old co-creator, Stew, is up for book, score, acting and orchestrations.

The musical’s biggest rival for this year is without a doubt “In The Heights”, which some believe will appeal on a higher level to the voters, as it is considered a feel-good show presenting a neighborhood in uptown Manhattan. The other two nominees are “Cry-Baby” and “Xanadu”.

The Best Play category finds competing for the prestigious award “August: Osage County”, “Rock ’n’ Roll”, “The Seafarer” and “The 39 Steps”.

The five nominees for Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Play are Ben Daniels for his work in “Les Liaisons Dangereuses”, Laurence Fishburne in “Thurgood”, Mark Rylance in “Boeing- Boeing”, Rufus Sewell with “Rock ’n’ Roll” and Patrick Stewart for his role in “Macbeth”.

The nominated artists for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play are Eve Best in "The Homecoming", Deanna Dunagan in "August: Osage County", Kate Fleetwood in "Macbeth", S. Epatha Merkerson for "Come Back, Little Sheba" and Amy Morton again, from "August: Osage County".

For the complete list of nominees, be sure to visit the event’s official Web site at www.tonyawards.com.