Description

“The Book of Mormon”, which follows a pair of mismatched Mormon boys sent on a mission to a place that’s about as far from Salt Lake City as you can get, features book, music, and lyrics by Trey Parker and Matt Stone (creators of “South Park”) and Robert Lopez (co-creator of the hit musical comedy “Avenue Q”). The show is choreographed by Casey Nicholaw (Monty Python’s “Spamalot”, “The Drowsy Chaperone”) and is co-directed by Nicholaw and Parker. Parker, Stone and Lopez worked on the show for seven years and, as Parker said on opening night March 24, 2011. The show is what we wanted it to be. It’s the show we fantasized about, what we hoped for and dreamed of. Little could they have dreamed of the monster success the show has become: nine Tony Awards including Best Musical, twelve Drama Desk Awards, a Grammy-winning cast album, universally rave reviews, sold-out performances on Broadway, a national touring company to start a 17-city beginning August 14, 2012 in Denver and continuing through August 2013, a third company in Chicago opening in December, and a fourth in London opening in March 2013. Here now, in an original eye-catching design, one gorgeous illustrated book that goes from Creation to Exultation, with: hundreds of full-color, behind-the-scene photos and drawings; revealing commentaries and behind-the-scenes anecdotes from the writers, director, choreographer, orchestrator, lighting designer, costume designer, and the entire Broadway cast, most culled from new interviews conducted especially for this book; an exclusive article chronicling the show’s creation written especially for this book by theater critic and author Steven Suskin, focusing on the creators – Parker, Lopez and Stone – their collaboration, and their influences; the annotated script and lyrics, with commentaries from the creators and cast; forewords by Frank Rich and Mark Harris; in the section called Exultation, Ben Brantley’s “New York Times” review in full; extracts from numerous other rave reviews; listing of awards. It’s all here, in one, deliriously delightful book, the experience of the creators and cast behind the most amazing show to hit Broadway in decades.