Tony Awards 2018: 'Harry Potter', Andrew Garfield and Glenda Jackson honoured on politically charged night

"Harry Potter and the Cursed Child" won the Tony Award for best play on Sunday while Andrew Garfield and Glenda Jackson took home acting prizes during a politically charged night at Broadway's honours for the best in theatre.

Besides the top prize, "Harry Potter," a record-setting $69 million production set 19 years after the last of J.K. Rowling's best-selling novels about the boy wizard, won another five Tonys including best director.

Garfield won best actor in a play for his acclaimed performance in the "Angels in America" revival, a monumental two-part drama about AIDS during the Reagan years.

The actor dedicated the win to the LGBTQ community, who he said fought and died for the right to love. He said the play is a rejection of bigotry, shame and oppression.

"We are all sacred and we all belong," Garfield said. He then referenced last week's US Supreme Court decision which ruled in favour of a baker's right to deny a gay couple a wedding cake based on his beliefs.

"(Let's) just bake a cake for everyone who wants a cake to be baked," he said, to rousing applause. Lane, who won for best featured actor in a play, said "Angels" still speaks to society in the midst of "political insanity."

"Angels in America" was named best play revival on Sunday.

Nathan Lane took home his third Tony award for "Angels in America," as closeted conservative lawyer Roy Cohn, who died of AIDS.

Jackson, 82, returning to Broadway after 30 years and a lengthy term as a British politician, was named best actress for her tour-de-force performance in Edward Albee's "Three Tall Women."

Musical "The Band's Visit," about Egyptian musicians stranded in a small Israeli town, was the biggest winner of the night.

It captured 10 statuettes, including best musical, on a night where the theme of acceptance flowed through the ceremony.

"The Band's Visit" is based on a 2007 Israeli film of the same name and centres on members of an Egyptian police orchestra booked to play a concert at an Israeli city who accidentally end up in the wrong town. Its embrace of foreign cultures working together found a sweet spot with Tony voters.

"In 'The Band's Visit,' music gives people hope and makes borders disappear," producer Orin Wolf said upon accepting the best new musical crown, saying it offers a message of unity in a world that "more and more seems bent on amplifying our differences."

Tony Shalhoub, the "Monk" star who won as best leading man in a musical for his work on "The Band's Visit," connected the win to his father's 1920 immigration from Lebanon to New York's Ellis Island at age 8. "Tonight, I celebrate him and all of those in his family who journeyed before him and with him and after him," he said.

The show's Katrina Lenk, who won best actress in a musical, said the production "filled her stupid little heart with so much joy." She dedicated her award in part to the iconic Egyptian singer Umm Kulthum.

"The Band's Visit" also won statuettes for best direction, orchestration, sound design, best book and score, lighting and featured actor Ari'el Stachel, who gave a heartfelt speech about his past.

In one of the ceremony's most mesmerizing moments, Melody Herzfeld, the heroic drama teacher who nurtured many of the young people demanding change following the February school shooting in Parkland, Florida, was honored from the Tony Award stage.

Herzfeld, the one-woman drama department at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, was cheered by the crowd at Radio City Music Hall. Herzfeld saved 65 lives by barricading students into a small classroom closet on Valentine's Day when police say a former student went on a school rampage, killing 17 people.

She then later encouraged many of her pupils to lead the nationwide movement for gun reform. Members of Herzfeld's drama department took to the Tony stage to serenade her with "Seasons of Love" from the musical "Rent."

Laurie Metcalf won her second Tony, playing a younger version of Jackson's imperious character in "Three Tall Women."

Bruce Springsteen, whose show started as a limited 8-week run in October 2017 will play for 236 performances before year's end, said appearing on Broadway has been "one of the most exciting things I've ever experienced."

The rocker received his special Tony at the 72nd annual awards from fellow musician Billy Joel at a gala ceremony at Radio City Music Hall hosted by singer-songriter-actors Josh Groban and Sara Bareilles.

Robert De Niro, who took the stage to introduce Springsteen's performance, started off with an expletive directed at President Donald Trump, which garnered him a sustained standing ovation from the crowd.)

Actor, writer and comedian John Leguizamo also received a special Tony for his one-man show, "Latin History for Morons."

Co-hosts Josh Groban and Sara Bareilles, talented and likable if not terribly thrilling, made somewhat subdued hosts, opening the show with a self-parodying duet on piano for all the losers out there - including them. "Let's not forget that 90 percent of us leave empty-handed tonight. So this is for the people who lose," they sang.