Trey Parker and Matt Stone, the creators of funny profanity animated series “South Park” won nine awards including Best Original Score, Best Musical and Best Book of a Musical in the Tony Awards. The Book of Mormon was the first-time for Parker and Stone to write a play for Broadway.
Matt Stone said, “That was the big question: are the grey hairs gonna come and are the South Park people going to come to something they can’t afford? But I’ve seen some really old people in their laughing their asses off!”
The Book of Mormon has grossed more than $10 million in ticket sales since their opening in March. It has been nominated for 14 Tony Awards, the most nominations for a show this year. Stars Andrew Rannells, Nikki M. James, Josh Gad and Rory O’Malley also had individual nominations.
Josh Gad said, “It’s been a ride and a half. All of us are so thrilled that the world is embracing it as furiously as they are.”
Stone and Parker met the man behind Avenue Q, Robert Lopez and together, they made The Book of Mormon. Avenue Q was Broadway’s 2004 Best Musical. Robert Lopez shared a vision with the South park creators and thus, the birth of a musical about Mormonism.
The Book of Mormon is a story about young Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints missionaries on a mission to proselytize people in the war-torn African country of Uganda. Aside from winning Best Original Score, Best Musical and Best Book of a Musical, the Book of Mormon also won Best Orchestrations, Best Sound Design, Best Lighting Design and Best Scenic Design of a Musical. Nikki M. James won Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Role in a Musical and Casey Nicholaw and Trey Parker won Best Direction of a Musical.
The Tony Awards, founded in 1947, recognizes achievement in live Broadway theatre. The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Theatre, more commonly known as a Tony Award, is named after Antoinette Perry, an actress, director, producer and co-founder of the American Theatre Wing, who had died in 1946.
The Book of Mormon is one of the hottest in town and it is almost impossible to get tickets. Even cast members find it very hard to get tickets for their friends and family. Because of the near impossibility to get tickets for the play, Broadway theatres like the Eugene O’Neill Theatre have the Book of Mormon lottery draws where people could win tickets. Every afternoon people would line up and join the lottery at $32 each.
The Book of Mormon also made a new record for selling over 61,000 copies of the album. It also came in at No. 3 on the Billboard 200 following famous albums of Lady Gaga and Adele.
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