The arrival of a Broadway cast album in the Billboard Top 10 hasn't happened since the cast album of the iconic musical Hair was released in 1969. The Book of Mormon also over-sold the musical cast albums of Dreamgirls and Rent, which ranked in the top 20.
Producers also made a smart move last week, which undoubtedly helped sales figures, by selling the album for $1.99 on Amazon.com for a four-day period. Pop artist Lady Gaga made a similar move with her new album "Born This Way," which was available at Amazon for $.99 and generated 440,000 copies sold via the online retailer out of the 1.1 million copies sold in its first week.
As previously reported, the Ghostlight Records cast album of the nine-time Tony Award-winning musical is the record holder for the fastest-selling digitally released cast album.
The Book of Mormon has book, music and lyrics by Emmy Award-winning "South Park" creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone, and Avenue Q Tony Award winner Robert Lopez, all of whom earned 2011 Tony Awards for Best Book and Best Original Score. The musical opened to raves March 24 at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre.
The Book of Mormon also picked up Tony Awards for Best Musical, Best Direction (Parker and co-director/choreographer Casey Nicholaw), Best Performance by a Featured Actress (Nikki M. James), Best Orchestrations (Larry Hochman and Stephen Oremus), Best Scenic Design (Scott Pask), Best Sound Design (Brian Ronan) and Best Lighting Design (Brian MacDevitt). The hard copy of the album is currently available at the Ghostlight Records website, and can be downloaded digitally on iTunes.
The track list for The Book of Mormon follows:
"Hello!"
"Two By Two"
"You and Me (But Mostly Me)"
"Hasa Diga Eebowai"
"Turn It Off"
"I Am Here for You"
"All-American Prophet"
"Sal Tlay Ka Siti"
"Man Up"
"Making Things Up Again"
"Spooky Mormon Hell Dream"
"I Believe"
"Baptize Me"
"I Am Africa"
"Joseph Smith America Moses"
"Tomorrow Is a Latter Day"
Josh Gad ("The Daily Show with Jon Stewart") and Andrew Rannells (Jersey Boys) star as an unlikely pair of Mormon missionaries who venture from Salt Lake City to AIDS-ravaged Uganda in the hopes of converting villagers with the story of Joseph Smith and the founding of the Mormon Church. The problem is: Only one of them has actually read the book.
The cast also features Rory O'Malley (The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee) as Elder McKinley, Tony Award winner James (All Shook Up) as Nabalungi and Michael Potts (Grey Gardens) as Mafala Hatimbi, as well as Lewis Cleale, Scott Barnhardt, Justin Bohon, Darlesia Cearcy, Kevin Duda, Asmeret Ghebremichael, Brian Tyree Henry, Clark Johnsen, John Eric Parker, Jason Michael Snow, Benjamin Schrader, Michael James Scott, Brian Sears, Lawrence Stallings, Rema Webb, Maia Nkenge Wilson, Tommar Wilson, Graham Bowen, Ta’Rea Campbell, Jared Gertner, Tyson Jennette and Nick Spangler.
For tickets phone (212) 239-6200 or visit Telecharge. The Eugene O'Neill Theatre is located at 230 West 49th Street.
