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BOM Is Coming to Sydney 030917 PRESS RELEASE Sunday 3 September 2017 THE MORMONS ARE COMING TO SYDNEY! The Book of Mormon, Broadway’s smash hit musical written by Trey Parker, Matt Stone and Robert Lopez, is coming to Sydney. The Tony®, Olivier®, Grammy® and Helpmann® award-winning show will begin performances at the Sydney Lyric Theatre on 28 February 2018. The ticket waitlist is now open at BookOfMormonMusical.com.au. Sign up to receive priority- booking information for your chance to see The Book of Mormon first in Sydney, before tickets go on sale on Tuesday 5 September. The Australian production of The Book of Mormon has notched up over 250 performances since opening at Melbourne’s Princess Theatre on 17 January, with every performance sold out. Winner of nine Tony Awards® including Best Musical, the Grammy® for Best Musical Theatre album and four Olivier Awards® including Best Musical, The Book of Mormon broke the house record for the highest selling on-sale period of any production in the Princess Theatre’s 159-year history. At the 2017 Helpmann Awards, The Book of Mormon was crowned winner of the coveted Best Musical award, while Trey Parker and Casey Nicholaw were awarded Best Direction of a Musical. Since making its world premiere in March 2011 at New York’s Eugene O’Neill Theater, The Book of Mormon has played 335 consecutive weeks at more than 100% capacity on Broadway (standing room adds additional capacity),170 weeks at more than 100% capacity at theatres around the US, and sold out every single one of its 1,888 performances thus far in London’s West End. The London production opened in February 2013, winning four Olivier Awards®, including Best New Musical. The Book of Mormon smashed box office records for the highest single day of sales in West End history. It has broken the house record at the Eugene O’Neill Theater more than 50 times and set 90 house records at 47 theatres around the US. “The best musical of this century.” Ben Brantley, The New York Times Book, Music and Lyrics are by Trey Parker, Robert Lopez and Matt Stone. Co-directed by Trey Parker and Casey Nicholaw, The Book of Mormon has choreography by Casey Nicholaw, set design by Scott Pask, costume design by Ann Roth, lighting design by Brian MacDevitt, sound design by Brian Ronan, orchestrations by Larry Hochman and Stephen Oremus, and music supervision and vocal arrangements by Stephen Oremus. The Book of Mormon is produced in Australia by Anne Garefino, Scott Rudin, Important Musicals and John Frost. Waitlist for tickets now at BookOfMormonMusical.com.au Contains explicit language. The Book of Mormon Sydney Lyric Theatre, The Star, Sydney BookOfMormonMusical.com.au Follow The Book of Mormon on social media: @bookofmormonau #bookofmormonau For all media enquiries: Ian Phipps I +61 419 977 649 I [email protected] NOTES TO EDITORS TREY PARKER (CO-DIRECTOR, BOOK, MUSIC, LYRICS) Parker wrote and directed his first feature film, Cannibal! The Musical, while attending the University of Colorado in Boulder. A few years later, Trey co-created the hit animated series South Park with Matt Stone (his college friend and Cannibal! producer). Debuting on Comedy Central in 1997 and currently in its twentieth season, South Park has won five Emmy Awards as well as the coveted Peabody Award. The same year South Park debuted, Parker wrote, directed and starred in the film Orgazmo. Two years later, Parker and Stone released the critically acclaimed feature film South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut. The musical, which Parker directed and co- wrote, earned an Oscar nomination for Best Song and the first ever New York Film Critics Circle Award for an animated film. In 2004, the pair returned to theatres with Team America: World Police, an action movie co-written and directed by Parker that starred a cast of marionettes. It has been a long- time dream of Parker’s to write a musical for Broadway. He won four Tonys for The Book of Mormon, including Best Musical, as well as the Grammy for The Best Musical Theater Album. Trey Parker is originally from Conifer, Colorado. MATT STONE (BOOK, MUSIC AND LYRICS) Stone met Trey Parker at the University of Colorado, and together they made a short animated piece called The Spirit of Christmas. This launched their most recognized work, the critically acclaimed and award-winning television show, South Park. The animated series is in its twentieth season on Comedy Central and has won Stone five Emmy Awards and the coveted Peabody Award. South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut, which Stone produced and co-wrote, earned an Oscar nomination and the New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Animated Film. In addition to South Park, Stone has partnered with Parker on the low-budget Cannibal: The Musical, the superhero comedy Orgazmo, and the marionette action thriller Team America: World Police. Stone won three Tonys for The Book of Mormon, including Best Musical, as well as a Grammy for The Best Musical Theater Album. Matt Stone is originally from Littleton, Colorado. ROBERT LOPEZ (BOOK, MUSIC, LYRICS) Robert is the co-creator of the smash hit Broadway musicals Avenue Q and The Book of Mormon. Along with his wife and collaborator Kristen Anderson-Lopez, he wrote the songs for Disney's Frozen, earning an Oscar® and a Grammy® for the movie’s signature song “Let It Go,” and a Grammy® for the Frozen soundtrack. Lopez and Anderson-Lopez's Emmy® nominated song "Moving Pictures," opened the 2015 Academy Awards. Their original musical, Up Here, was featured in the La Jolla Playhouse’s 2015-16 season. Lopez shared two Emmy® Award wins for his music for Nickelodeon’s The Wonder Pets and an Emmy® nomination for the musical episode of Scrubs. His work has also been featured on TV shows including South Park, The Simpsons and Phineas and Ferb. He has won Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle, Drama League, Lucile Lortel, Frederick Loewe and Edward Kleban awards. Lopez is one of only twelve artists to win all four major entertainment industry awards (Emmy®, Grammy®, Oscar® and Tony® Awards). A graduate of Yale, Lopez now resides in Brooklyn with his wife and two daughters. CASEY NICHOLAW (CO-DIRECTOR AND CHOREOGRAPHER) Nicholaw is currently represented on Broadway as director and choreographer of Disney’s Aladdin (2014 Tony, Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Award nominations, Best Choreography) as well as co-director and choreographer of The Book of Mormon (2011 Tony, Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle awards as co-director with Trey Parker, receiving the same nominations for choreography as well as an Olivier Award). Currently represented on the West End as director and choreographer of The Book of Mormon and Dreamgirls. Other Broadway credits as director/choreographer include Tuck Everlasting, Something Rotten (2015 Tony nominee Best Director), Elf: The Musical, The Drowsy Chaperone (2006 Tony, Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle nominations), Monty Python’s Spamalot directed by Nichols (2005 Tony, Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle nominations, Best Choreography). Additional New York credits for City Center Encores! are the highly acclaimed productions of The Most Happy Fella, Anyone Can Whistle and Follies (direction/choreography). .
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