Favorite Quotes Vol. XXXVII: Why the Book of Mormon authors think theater ain’t going anywhere.

The Authors of The Book of Mormon were featured in a NY Times article a few weeks ago.  If you only read Arts and Leisure then you probably missed it because this 1000 worder was in the Media and Advertising pages of the Biz section.

Oooh, and you all know how much it gets my motor going when Broadway gets a mention away from the arts pages.

It was an article about Matt Stone and Trey Parker, the auteurs of The Book of Mormon (along with their musical muse, Bobby Lopez), and the recent announcement about the formation of their $300mm production company.

These two have had quite a ride, especially when you look at what launched them in the first place:  a two dimensional, simply drawn . . . cartoon.  No avatarish-technology, no pixary Imax 8D . . . just a simple cartoon . . . that just happened to be amazingly funny . . . and incredibly unique.

When asked how they managed to cut through the modern-mass-media noise with what they create, and stay current with new distribution channels, etc., Mr. Stone had this to say . . .

Disruption is overrated.  If you tell good stories, the platforms are sort of beside the point.  We made the most analog thing you can think of, a play at the Eugene O’Neill Theater, and it worked out as well as anything we have ever done.

Did you hear that?  Here’s what I took away:

1 – Tell good stories that people want to hear and it doesn’t matter where/how you present them.

2 – And the The Book of Mormon is just as successful for them as “anything they’ve ever done.”

So the next time someone tells you that the theater is dying, or that it’s not a place you can make money, or reach an audience, take a cue from Cartman, and tell them to #$@ off.

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