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Imagine being in a college acting program, sitting up at nights with your roommate and dreaming what could happen after graduation. Wouldn't it be great if you both came to New York and became working actors? Maybe fate would have it that you both got roles as replacements in the same show, then later, you are randomly cast again in another show, one of the most buzzed-about musicals in recent times; the show becomes a massive hit and both of you are even nominated for Tony Awards. O.K., maybe that's getting carried away...

Unless you are The Book of Mormon's Josh Gad and Rory O'Malley, former college roommates at Carnegie Mellon University. This is exactly what happened to them — and it's far beyond what their wildest imaginations ever would have allowed. They first shared the Broadway stage together in The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, and now, with The Book of Mormon, they are sharing the stage and 2011 Tony nominations (Gad for Best Actor, O'Malley for Best Featured Actor). Also Tony-nominated are their co-stars Andrew Rannells (Best Actor) and Nikki M. James (Best Featured Actress) and just about everyone else on the show's creative team.

	Josh Gad

Josh Gad is the ne'er-do-well Elder Cunningham, the lovable loser Mormon missionary with a pathological lying streak who stands little chance to win converts next to Rannells' über-Mormon Elder Price. In reality, Gad is an actor already tapped into success. Rory O'Malley claims that post-Carnegie Mellon, he was so sure of Gad's talent, he looked to him as a gauge. If gifted Gad wasn't working in the biz, then O'Malley didn't feel bad about his own chances. Sure enough, the Florida-born Gad's become a rising force — as a correspondent on "The Daily Show," in the film "Love and Other Drugs" and, in Book of Mormon, delivering the type of physical comedy that energizes the whole theatre.

A week away from the Tonys, how are you feeling?
I am feeling blessed, is what I'm feeling. It's just craziness. I've never experienced anything like it. I know most of my co-stars haven't. We're all pretty much in shock and awe right now and enormously grateful that we get to come on for the ride.

As you were getting a sense of the show during rehearsals and pre-production, were you on the fence as to how it would go over, or did you know this is going to kick ass — that everyone was going to love it?
Certainly the first time I heard "Hasa Diga Eebowai" out of context, I said whoa, this is going to be an interesting experiment that could result in gunfire. But it immediately became clear to me after the first reading that what [creators] Trey [Parker] and Matt [Stone] and Bobby [Lopez] had accomplished was nothing short of extraordinary and that there would be an audience. I never anticipated that it would be this big, but I did believe in it at that point.

It's fun to look around the audience and see old people, young people, different kinds of people. Could you have ever imagined this type of show bringing people together and filling the house?
That's the thing I've been enormously and pleasantly surprised by — the demographic embrace of this show across the board. Young and old, everybody's finding something about it…that kind of speaks to them.

Congratulations on the Tony nomination for Best Actor in a Leading Role.
Thanks. It's really, really remarkable. It's pretty damn cool. I feel like it really gives me a bit more weight at home now, so I have more of a say with my wife. That's the nicest part about it.

"The Tony nominee wants chicken for dinner."
Yeah, or she says, "I thought I told you to clean the kitchen." I say, "I thought I told you I was a Tony nominee."

	Gad and Andrew Rannells on opening night.
	photo by Joseph Marzullo/WENN

In a March Playbill Cue & A column, you said one thing people would be surprised to know about you is that you are a father. Why do you think that is surprising to people?
Because I'm such a hot, young bachelor kind of guy that you would expect to be single and available for all the beautiful women out there... No, I just figured that people would be surprised that I'm a dad because I think they think I'm younger than I am and schlumpier and probably less responsible than I am, which is all partly true. But, I have a kid who is remarkably cool and the greatest thing ever.

Did you and your wife meet in the biz, in a cute way?
We did, we met during a production of All in the Timing by David Ives in a black box theatre in Los Angeles. We played husband and wife, Mr. and Mrs. Trotsky, and we fell in love with each other.

Your first-act closer in The Book of Mormon, "Man Up," requires vocal gymnastics and physical energy. Is that a tough one to prepare for?
It is, by virtue of the kind of rock nature of the song. It's definitely difficult material, and it can easily thrash your voice if you're not prepared.

Your character comes up with various names for your romantic interest, Nabalungi [played by Nikki M. James], calling her every name except that one. Are you allowed to improvise?
They give me incredible freedom, and it's been amazing. I have had so, so, so many creative opportunities to explore different names for her. Generally they let me get away with it, but I called her "Nathan Lane" once, and that didn't go over too well.

What were Parker and Stone like to work with?
For me, these are two of the top five working comedy people in the business right now. I grew up so in awe of what they did with "South Park" and "Team America." But to actually collaborate with them from the get-go was one of those experiences that you can never fully prepare for. It's truly been a master class of comedy. They are so good at what they do, and the frustrating part is how easy it comes to them. They will spit this stuff out so fast. Bobby Lopez does too. The three of them are at the top of their game.

What did Carnegie Mellon mean to you as a training ground?
Carnegie is, it goes without staying, one of the best conservatories in the nation, but for me, it was a place to not only grow as an actor and a person, but create incredible relationships that stand well beyond my four years at the school. One of which is my fellow Tony nominee and freshman-year-through-senior roommate, Rory O'Malley. We've known each other now for over ten years. We've been on Broadway before together, and now to be able to do this together and both celebrate with nominations is a pretty damn cool exercise.

	Gad on opening night
	photo by Joseph Marzullo/WENN

I am speaking to him next, so I was going to ask you for a good Rory O'Malley story.
Well, there was a day in freshman year of college when he and I had just become roommates. He had had issues with his former roommate, so he asked to move in with me and I said O.K. Early on during that process, we got back from a raging party, and I went to sleep and I woke up and I had this body hanging on top of me. He had fallen asleep standing up, on me. I was like, "This is going to be a long four years." I had to pick him up and take him back to his bed and then lecture him the next morning that it was not O.K. to fall asleep vertically on your roommate.

Now, you know he's going to get asked a story about you, so I don't know if you want to anticipate in advance what that might be.
No, I think I know what it is, but we'll see how vicious he can be.

What about Andrew Rannells, such a great foil for you in the show? He joined the cast later in the developmental process.
Yes, Andrew came on at the last minute. He was the very final piece of the puzzle, and for the three-plus years that we've been doing it, we had great Elder Prices along the way, but none of them had that extra thing that Trey, Matt and Bobby knew that they needed. The character just kept coming off as cocky and arrogant without much redemption, and a lot of that was the writing, but a good amount of it was finding the right person to fit that character. In walks this guy that hadn't had much of a résumé at that point, and I remember they brought him out to do a "chemistry read" with me in L.A., and I remember just being so blown away by him, and intimidated. And I was like, "This is the guy." Apparently I have good taste because that's the guy that they hired. It's been such an unbelievable, unbelievable experience to be able to work alongside him. We really are playing two sides of one coin, and I could not do what I do without him.

Unlike Rory, you and Andrew are nominated in the same category. Is it competitive between you guys at all, or just fun?
No, at this point, it's so, so fun. The big thing was getting [to Broadway], and anything after this is just icing on the cake. The fact that I'm even nominated alongside him is so incredible to me. I'm so unbelievably grateful to be included with all these remarkable people I look up to and admire the hell out of. It's going to be a fun night. I'm bringing my wife, and my parents are coming. It's going to be fun to sit back and relax and enjoy that show that I've watched for all these years on TV.

Nikki M. James and Josh Gad in The Book of Mormon

photo by Joan Marcus