The religious text of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints was published by Joseph Smith in March 1830 in Palmyra, New York. The full title is The Book of Mormon: An Account Written by the Hand of Mormon upon Plates Taken from the Plates of Nephi. Like in the musical, missionaries brought the book to neighboring areas to spread the religion.

At the University of Colorado at Boulder, math major Stone and music major Parker met in film class. Their off-kilter senses of humor added up and, well, sang.

Their adult-oriented animated shorts Jesus vs. Frosty (1992) and Jesus vs. Santa (1995) offered early proof of their interest in satirical humor. The minifilms laid the groundwork for what would become their iconic series South Park, about quirky kids in Colorado, that debuted in August 1997 and spawned a 1999 movie musical co-written with Pam Brady.

In the summer of 2003, Stone and Parker checked out the then-new Broadway musical Avenue Q, which would go on to win three Tonys including Best Musical, Best Book (Jeff Whitty), and Best Score (Robert Lopez and Jeff Marx). They bonded with Lopez and Marx over a shared desire to do a project about religion and Joseph Smith.

The format was to be determined: stage show, film, or concept album? Progress moved slowly at first due to other projects, including South Park and a London production of Avenue Q.

In 2006, Marx stepped away, and Stone, Parker, and Lopez continued on with the project whose full working title would be hard to fit on a marquee: The Book of Mormon: The Musical of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

The creators developed a story of Elder Price and Elder Cunningham, Mormon missionaries who dream of serving in Orlando but get sent to Uganda. The first fully staged reading in February 2008 at the Vineyard Theatre in New York, directed by Avenue Q Tony nominee Jason Moore, led the team to commit to a stage musical.

Small readings and larger-scale presentations in both NYC and L.A. helped to refine the tone, develop characters, and explore formats. Songs were written and rewritten: For example, “Spooky Mormon Hell Dream” was formerly titled “H-E Double Hockey Sticks.”

After securing funding for the show following an investors' workshop in August 2010, the creators planned to premiere it off Broadway at New York Theatre Workshop. Soon, though, they decided to debut it directly on Broadway. Original cast members Josh Gad (Elder Cunningham), Rory O’Malley (Elder McKinley), and Nikki M. James (Nabulungi) were attached essentially from the beginning, and Andrew Rannells (Elder Price) came on slightly later in the workshop process.

On February 24, 2011, the show began Broadway performances at the Eugene O’Neill Theatre, where it officially opened on March 24 and became a commercial and critical hit.

When the Tony Award nominations were announced on May 2, The Book of Mormon got 14, the most for the season, At the ceremony the next month, the show won nine awards: Best Musical and eight more prizes for its score, book, direction, featured actress (Nikki M. James), orchestrations, scenic design, lighting, and sound. Additional nominations included acting nods for lead actors Gad and Rannells and featured actor O’Malley.

Released in September 2015, the original Broadway cast recording won a Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater Album. The recording, featuring songs like “Hello!,” “I Believe,” and “Turn It Off,” bested the cast albums of Anything Goes and How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying.

On August 14, 2012, the show’s first North American tour began at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts in Denver, a fitting place considering Colorado’s significance for Stone and Parker. It concluded in Honolulu in May 2016, and one of its stops in between was Salt Lake City in 2015.

The Book of Mormon’s U.K. premiere began February 25, 2013 at the Prince of Wales Theatre in London’s West End, where it won four Olivier Awards out of six nominations, including Best New Musical, Best Actor (the late Gavin Creel, reprising his role of Elder Price from the U.S. tour), supporting performance (Stephen Ashfield as Elder McKinley), and choreography (Casey Nicholaw).

Deemed “enormously enjoyable” by London Theatre, the production is still running.

On January 17, 2017, the first non-English version of The Book of Mormon opened at the Chinateatern in Stockholm, Sweden. The musical has also landed in Australia, Norway, Denmark, the Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland, and Spain.

Like the rest of Broadway, The Book of Mormon closed on March 12, 2020, in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. It reopened on November 5, 2021. After the pause, the creators made rewrites to give the Ugandan villagers additional agency.

On March 19, five days before the exact anniversary of its opening, The Book of Mormon celebrated its big 15 by having Parker, Stone, and Lopez appear on stage alongside multiple show alumni, including original company members Rannells and O’Malley.

“Who would have ever thought?” said Lopez. There were thank-yous and confetti canons and tears.

From June 9-14, the show celebrates its 15-year Broadway milestone with the “Magical Mormon Mystery Week.” Each performance that week will feature guest appearances by original cast members Gad, Rannells, James, and O’Malley. They’ll perform select scenes and songs alongside the current cast, with no show exactly the same. Creators Parker, Stone, and Lopez, plus other Book of Mormon alums and special guests, are also set to pop in. That's one stacked congregation.

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