Lin-Manuel Miranda Reflects On Tony Win

Best Musical "In The Heights" A Labor Of Love For Its Creator And Star

(CBS)  The Latin and hip-hop infused Broadway musical "In The Heights" was a big hit at the 2008 Tony Awards. The show took home four awards, including Best Musical and Best Original Score for the show's star and creator, Lin-Manuel Miranda.

For Miranda, who visited The Early Show with his Tony and his castmates Monday morning, the reality was just starting to sink in.

"When I woke up this morning and I saw [the Tony] on the counter, I said 'this really happened!'"

The musical, which received 13 Tony nominations -- more than any other this theatre season -- has been almost a decade in the making.

"I started writing it when I was 19 and I finished writing it about March first of this year. I'm 28 years old, so you do the math on that one," he told Julie Chen.

The project has also been a labor of love for the native New Yorker.

"I grew up in Inwood - just north of Washington Heights. I missed the Washington Heights cutoff by about 10 blocks." But, he says," Inwood doesn’t sing as well.

"I took piano lessons on 181st Street and I started writing when I was homesick at college at Wesleyan in Connecticut," explains Miranda. "I missed the bodegas… I missed home and started writing the show."

"In The Heights" is about a snobby Dominican bodega owner, played by Miranda, and offers a snapshot of a neighborhood on the brink of change.

Sunday night, Miranda, who wrote the music and lyrics, rapped his way through his acceptance speech for best score.

"I know I wrote a little show about home. Mr. Sondheim, look, I made a hat. (a reference to a lyric in Sondheim's 'Sunday in the Park with George') But there never was a hat - it's a Latin hat at that!"

Who were his role models growing up?

"I had so many - I can't believe I got to shout out to Stephen Sondheim in my speech last night - but also Big Pun, Jay- Z, Rubén Blades and Mark Anthony - the music is really a fusion of all of these different styles of all of my heroes."

"In the Heights" also took home awards for its choreography and orchestrations.