The Book of Mormon

[blucher]

10 characters

?The schedule throws you off so much,? says Parker, referring to their new Broadway musical, The Book of Mormon, about two young missionaries who are sent to Uganda. ?We?ve been going to previews every night then staying up till 2 or 3. I?m worn out.?

Who can blame him? In the nine weeks since South Park?s creators decamped from Los Angeles for New York, they?ve plunged into a frenetic world of rehearsals, rewrites and directing their show ? all with, between them, a wife, a girlfriend and two kids in tow. The sheer volume of work, and the lightning speed at which it has raced by, has caught them unawares.
?It?s crazy how fast it is,? says Parker, wolfing down dinner at Serafina restaurant. ?We did four weeks of rehearsals, then two weeks of ?tech,? then went into previews. Seriously, this is what blew my mind: We only heard the thing with a full orchestra six days before the first paying audience.?




On March 24, a far higher-profile audience is scheduled to attend Mormon?s opening night, when New York will be counting on the production to sustain Broadway?s momentum ? with more than $1 billion in grosses last year ? and restore some of the luster tarnished by Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark.
But at this point, with just eight days left before the premiere, that?s the last thing on the writers? minds. Parker dreams of taking a vacation ?somewhere in the Caribbean,? while Stone just wants to ?go look at a wall and check out.?
He won?t have long to do so. A week after they leave New York around March 28, the pair hurtles into the 15th season of South Park, part of a new pact with Comedy Central that keeps the show on the air through 2013 and is said to be even richer than their previous $75 million deal. They?ll have just one week to create each episode, with no time to prep.
?Every show, we?re down to the wire,? says Parker, running his hand through his hair in exasperation. ?I don?t know how we?re going to do it. It?s a nightmare.?