The U.S. theater industry has handed out its top awards to a musical about Mormons and a play about a boy and his horse.

The American Theater Wing gave out its annual Tony awards on Sunday, honoring plays and musicals staged on Broadway in New York – considered the highest level of the U.S. theater industry.

An irreverent show about Mormon missionaries in Africa, The Book of Mormon, had 14 award nominations and became the top winner with nine wins, among them Best Musical and Best Direction of a Musical. It was the first foray into live musical theater for two of its writers, Trey Parker and Matt Stone, who are better known for creating the long-running, boundary-pushing animated TV series South Park.

The other top winner of the night was the play War Horse, based on a children's book by the same name. It is the story of a boy's efforts to find and bring home his beloved horse after the animal is sold to British military forces for use in World War One. A special award was given to the Handspring Puppet Company, which created life-size puppets to play the war horses.

Two other top winners were Best Revival of a Musical Anything Goes, with music and lyrics by revered American songwriter Cole Porter; and the play The Normal Heart, about the rise of the AIDS crisis in the early 1980s.

The Tony Awards, named for actress and director Antoinette Perry, have been given out annually since 1947. The ceremony is broadcast nationally and features appearances by stars of both stage and screen.