And then, midway through the show, the winner looked like it might instead be the original musical Suffs, which early on won Tonys for both its book and score for creator and star Shaina Taub.

This theater season had its share of political shows: Suffs is about women fighting for the right to vote, Enemy of the People is about a battle over an environmental calamity, and Patriots is about Putin’s rise to power.

Several presenters and winners either made a point of pleading with people to vote in this election year, talked confidently about “making change,” or both.

Jay-Z and Alicia Keys sang their anthem “Empire State of Mind,” which is the closing number in Hell’s Kitchen, though they don’t appear in the Broadway production.

Daniel Radcliffe, Jeremy Strong and Sarah Paulson won acting awards and Eddie Redmayne performed with the cast of Cabaret.

Musicals now cost so much money that producers seem to be hesitant to back any production that’s not based on familiar material, meaning theaters are filled with adaptations of movies, books, even albums.

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