Composing 'The Book of Mormon' With 'South Park' Creators Was Like Being In a Band, Says Writer

By John Mitchell Posted May 7th 2011 10:00PM

On Tuesday, 'The Book of Mormon' received 14 Tony nominations, making it this year's most nominated show by far. That's just shy of the record 15 nominations 'The Producers' and 'Billy Elliot' landed in 2001 and 2009, respectively.

The irreverent musical is a collaboration between 'South Park' creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone and 'Avenue Q' mastermind Robert Lopez and tells the story of two Mormon missionaries sent on a mission to Uganda. As you might expect from a team of master satirists, the musical gently pokes fun at organized religion with songs like 'Spooky Mormon Hell Dream,' 'Making Things Up Again' and 'Baptize Me.'

We were lucky enough to talk to Lopez, who with Parker and Stone is nominated for Best Book of Musical and Best Original Score, and Best Featured Actor nominee Rory O'Malley, who plays a closeted gay man in denial in the show, at a press event in New York. They told us all about working with Parker and Stone and what it's like being a part of one of Broadway's biggest shows.

Tags: south park, The Book of Mormon, tony awards

Comments

(23)

Saturday 07 May

By JoJo

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I guess the same could be said for you too.

By Zero

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People must REALLY BE BORED!

By spacegator86

I'm really bored.

By amanda

Ever wonder why the south park boys don't do this to any other religion????

By fretwerk

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They do lampoon other cult religions. You should check them out and you'll maybe get a laugh in your sad bored life. It's about time these cults were taken to task for their crazy war worship. To bad you're so bored. Your future is being stolen from you... Yawn.

By cass

Yeah- I'm waitin g for them to do one on Islam !

By LongDuckDong

They did multiple South Park episodes about Islam already.

Sunday 08 May

By Ron Boutwell

Actually, they do rip on other religions. They relentlessly go after Scientology. Admittedly, they do beat on LDS quite a bit. And it is no secret that one of them was actually raised LDS and was indeed a missionary early in life.

By david

fretwork what is it that makes the 12,000,000 members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (Mormans) a cult? Just the facts please.

That's a good question for him. I would go further an ask him what qualifies as "war worship" that applies to LDS.

By american

Don't bother trying to clarify, they know not what they say. Ignorance justifies their words.

By barb

Actually, it's the facts of the religion of the LDS that make it a cult. It's the 12,000,000 believers that make it a sad fact.

Monday 09 May

By Antonio Gloop

And what are the "facts" that make Mormons a cult? Would love to hear it!

Well
Barb Please share some of these facts with us.

By raidrmik67

Was anything they represented untrue?

By michaelluongo

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I hope "Book of Mormon" gets released on DVD soon.

"The likelihood that a man is correct increased in direct ratio to the number of people trying to prove that he is wrong." - James Mason -

The Book of Mormon is on CD for your listening pleasure. You can listen to it while your in your car or wherever.

By McReligion

One person's religion is another person's fairytale, or cult or mistake or whatever! This is the fact that applies all throughtout the ages to everyone and every religion.

By cheese on wry

Seriously, anyone who has studied the LDS at all (not counting those who were indoctrinated into it) understands that it's a cult. Someone here requested facts and asked if anything the LDS teaches is false, well decide for yourself. Do you believe that an angel contacted Joseph Smith, gave him a couple of gold tablets that had writings on them in an ancient language that no historian has knowledge of and which only Smith could read? And that the tablets were then lost (or maybe returned to the heavenly library to avoid overdue fines)? How about "magic underwear"? Check it out, if that sounds good to you, perhaps you should join the LDS.

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