Fifteen years after The Book of Mormon made its Broadway debut, original cast members Andrew Rannells and Josh Gad once again took the stage as Mormon missionaries — this time at the 2026 Tony Awards.

Created and written by Trey Parker and Matt Stone (the duo behind South Park), along with veteran Broadway composer Robert Lopez, The Book of Mormon follows two young missionaries sent to try and bring Mormonism to a Ugandan village that’s struggling with the AIDS epidemic, war and famine. The musical is a satirical — sometimes affectionate, sometimes offensive — look at Mormonism and youthful naïveté. It was clear from the very first number — “Hello!” — that the show would cause a stir when it debuted in 2011.

Gad, who played Elder Cunningham in the original Broadway cast, remembers “laugh[ing] my butt off” when he first heard “Hello!” Then Gad listened to “Hasa Diga Eebowai,” a song in which the Ugandan villagers curse God, and he called his agent.

“I said, ‘I don’t think I can do this show,’” Gad recalls. “And he said, ‘Why?’ And I said, ‘Because I don’t want to get killed.’”

Meanwhile, Rannells, who played Elder Price, wasn’t phased by the material: “I heard the humor in it and I felt very confident that people were going to think it was funny,” Rannells says. “I certainly didn’t think it would be still running on Broadway after 15 years and would have toured to Salt Lake City. I didn’t think that they would have done that, but it did.”

The Book of Mormon received nine Tony Awards in 2011, including best musical and best score. To celebrate its Broadway anniversary, Gad and Rannells will be making cameo appearances in every show this week — along with the show’s creators and several other original cast members. Gad says that behind the satire, The Book of Mormon is actually a “very pro-faith show.”

“If you stick with the craziness and chaos … the end is very uplifting,” he says. “It’s actually quite emotional and soaring. And so you get this sense that there is something positive to come out of this hellscape that the show depicts.”

Andrew Rannells and Josh Gad starred in The Book of Mormon when it premiered on Broadway in 2011.

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Interview highlights

On connecting with Mormon missionaries in New York City while in rehearsal for The Book of Mormon

Rannells: When we were in rehearsals for the workshop, I decided that I should be a good little actor, and I should go to the Mormon temple and I should meet with some Mormon missionaries. So I got myself ensnared in a very strange relationship with these two young men, who I met with a handful of times and they were so excited that someone wanted to talk to them and that I solicited them. We met twice, like out near Lincoln Center where there is the big Mormon church. And then they said, “Can we come to your home?” …

So these two Mormon missionaries came over and immediately there’s a picture of my boyfriend and I like on the mantel and so I had to explain to them that I was like, I’m actually in a musical about the Mormon church and they were sort of shocked. But then they really … opened up to me about how scary and disappointing it was to be a missionary at times, and especially being a missionary in New York City. They were like, “No one will speak to us. People are very mean to us.” And then I was like, “Well, where are you hanging out?” And they’re like, “They send us to Times Square,” and I was like, “You’ve got to get out of Times Square. You cannot be hanging out in Times Square, boys. You should go someplace else. Don’t try to talk to people there. It’s not safe for you.”

On how their voices have changed in the past 15 years

Gad: I was insulted yesterday when our producer came up to me and said “You sound so much better than you did back when you first did it.” I was like what did I really not sound good when I first did it?

Rannells: No you sounded great. … I think you sound the same. I mean, look, our voices are different. Fifteen years, there’s a lot of wear and tear. But some of it is muscle memory, I would say, some of it comes back. I got to perform this number, “I Believe,” on Stephen Colbert’s show. That was the number that I sang on the Tony Awards… It was still somewhere like lodged in my voice.

Gad: When I found out I was doing this I played the album in the car, and I started to sing along, and some of those high notes, I just was like, “Oh my god I can’t! How am I gonna hit these?” And I actually asked them to lower it, and they laughed and said no, and then I started to sort of do it on my feet. And just like you said, something clicks. It’s like riding a bike. It’s just sort of in there somewhere

Rannells: Now the physical side of it, Terry, is a little different. Physically doing some of these numbers, that’s where the aging process really catches up to you. … I can’t dance as much as I used to. The singing part is a little easier to control. The physical, the knees, the getting up and down off the ground, that’s all a little bit different.

On losing his voice during a show 

Rannells: That happened many times.. … Over the course of my career, that’s something that happens, not just in The Book of Mormon, but in other shows. You learn to sing through sickness. I think there are nights where there are certain notes missing in your voice all of a sudden, and you don’t find out until you’re on stage in front of 1,200 people, and you’re like, “Oh boy.” And you just have to figure out a way to sing around it. After previews, after opening, after the Tony Awards, I hadn’t missed any performances. And I started my career as a replacement, as an understudy. I was not accustomed to the idea that I could call out of a show. I probably shouldn’t have done the show that night, but I remember it was like a couple weeks after the Tony Awards and I sang this duet that that Josh and I sing called “You and Me (But Mostly Me)” and it was kind of a disaster, but I just continue with the show and I was like, I’m gonna try to make this work.

Gad: It was actually remarkable to watch.

Rannells: I got through “I Believe,” somehow and sang the whole thing and I amazed myself that I could do it. And then I got to another song that’s called “Orlando,” I’m not sure if you remember this Josh, and it’s supposed to end with a little falsetto thing … and instead I went [low] … and the curtain flew up and all the missionaries come out and everyone was laughing and it was not great. But after the bows that night, I walked off stage and I remember Karen Moore, our stage manager, was standing there and I burst into tears, and I said, “I have to miss a show.” And she said, “You’re allowed to miss a show.” And I just cried and cried about it. It had never occurred to me.

On the songs in The Book of Mormon being a tribute to musical theater, influenced by Wicked, The King and I, The Lion King and The Music Man  

Gad: The influences of each of these songs [come] from a place of absolute weird devotion to musical theater on the part of Trey Parker and Matt Stone. Obviously Bobby Lopez comes from that world. But when you look at Trey and Matt, the first thing you think of is not necessarily, like, musical theater acumen. And these are two guys that people forget when they wrote South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut, the feature film adaptation of the Comedy Central show, they got a letter from Stephen Sondheim, who’s probably the most acclaimed composer and lyricist of the 20th century. And he basically said this is one of the top 10 most brilliantly realized musicals he’s ever seen.

And I really do think that part of the reason this show endures is because each one of these songs is instantaneously hummable. … Each one of these songs reminds you of something, but it’s never pastiche. It’s never sort of making fun of a genre. It is fully embracing it and earning its space. So you have an 11 o’clock number in “I Believe” that is as powerful, potent, and as mesmerizing and memorable as an 11 o’clock number from Guys and Dolls.

Rannells: Well, I think, and a lot of people would come to see The Book of Mormon and say, “Ah, I don’t really like musicals, but I do like this one.” Which is always funny to me, because every number was — I don’t wanna say a ripoff — but was a tribute.

On making the decision to leave the show and later regretting it 

Rannells: We did leave at the same time. Josh and I both had this very unique experience where we opened The Book of Mormon, we were both nominated for Tony Awards, we both lost those Tony Awards. … We then went out to Los Angeles. … We had a bunch of meetings in LA. We were very popular. These two guys from the biggest Broadway hit, everyone wanted to meet with us. We both got TV shows for NBC. Josh’s was called 1600 Penn. Mine was called The New Normal. They both aired the same week. We went to the up fronts together. They were both canceled.

Gad: Same week. … I was definitely, I think, more done than Andrew was by that point. … I had checked out at that point, and I felt like I was doing a disservice to myself and the audience.

Rannells: You didn’t seem like you were checked out.

Gad: No, but I started forgetting lines on stage. I wasn’t present. … I had also been doing it for so long, from its origin. I wanted to try new things. When I sort of do the same thing again and again, I start to get bored. … I look back at that now with a lot of regret. Because I don’t think I appreciated this incredible moment until I was able to reflect on it, actually, years later. Because when you’re in it, when you are in the eye of the hurricane there’s a lot going on that you can’t stop and settle yourself and go, oh my God, this is a moment that I’ll never have again. This is so unbelievably unique. …

Rannells: I wish that I had stayed longer.

Gad: I wish we had done another year.

Susan Nyakundi and John Sheehan produced and edited this interview for broadcast. Bridget Bentz, Molly Seavy-Nesper and Beth Novey adapted it for the web. 

NPR has hired a new chief content officer less than two weeks after overhauling its newsroom. Nadine Zylstra is tasked with expanding audiences for the public radio network’s news, entertainment and music in an increasingly digital world.

Zylstra comes to NPR from Pinterest, where she was the global programming chief. She previously was the global head of YouTube Originals and a top programming executive for Sesame Workshop, the nonprofit parent and producer of Sesame Street. She currently sits on the board of directors of PBS SoCal.

A native of South Africa, Zylstra says her first job in the U.S. was as a producer for the cable music channel VH-1 on celebrity news and wanted something different. She has since been hailed for her work promoting understanding across racial and ethnic divides for Sesame Street and programs for women at YouTube.

“I really feel like I’ve been training for this job my whole life,” Zylstra says in an interview. “I really do care about making the world a better place. When I am at my best, it’s when that connection between what I do and what I care about really comes together.”

NPR President and CEO Katherine Maher praised Zylstra, noting her work at Sesame and Pinterest’s reputation as a rare corner of relative kindness in the often harsh world of social media.

“In Nadine, we found somebody who comes out of public media… who understands the importance of media with a mission and a purpose, and as a tool for civic engagement,” says Maher in an interview. She says Zylstra will evaluate NPR’s portfolio of broadcast shows and podcasts in terms of whether they are fully reaching and serving audiences, and what might be missing from NPR’s offerings.

Additionally, Maher says, Zylstra understands the role of “joy and humor” in NPR’s programming, and how to create fresh content for new audiences as habits shift rapidly.

Zylstra will start in July and be based at NPR’s Culver City, Calif., office but come to NPR’s headquarters in Washington, D.C. at least once a month.

Gary Knell, a former chief executive of Sesame Workshop and NPR, calls Zylstra a dynamic figure who attracts brilliant colleagues.

“She’s a creative magnet for talent,” Knell says. “She has positive vibes.”

Knell says Zylstra came to work at Sesame in New York City after she collaborated with the company to develop a multiracial children’s show in her native South Africa. She later helped to create shows in tough spots, such as Kosovo, for the production company.

In this 2006 photo, Nadine Zylstra stands on the left, with filmmaker Linda Goldstein Knowlton, President and CEO of the Sesame Workshop Gary Knell, filmmaker Linda Hawkins Costigan, puppeteer Marty Robinson and President and CEO of the Museum of Television & Radio Pat Mitchell at the premiere of “The World According To Sesame Street.”

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“I would imagine this is an NPR move to bring in someone who is very familiar with social media platforms and YouTube content and is very able to drive content,” Knell says.

Pivotal moment for public media

Zylstra will oversee the leaders of NPR’s newsroom, music department, podcasts and related departments. But Maher stresses that Zylstra will not be involved in news decisions. While NPR Editor-in-Chief Tommy Evans will report to Zylstra on strategic matters, he will remain in charge of the journalism, Maher says. He will also remain part of Maher’s executive cabinet.

“I felt as though NPR’s journalism is rock solid and we’ve got great editorial leadership, and it was not probably the place where we needed additional layers,” Maher says. “I wanted someone who was really thinking about the expansiveness of public media’s mission and how we serve our audiences, how we encourage the innovations.”

NPR remains one of the most prestigious and wide-reaching outlets in broadcast news. More than 42 million people rely on it each week, on all its platforms, though that figure represents a drop from previous levels.

It continues to win awards for its news coverage, often conducted in concert with member stations around the country. NPR’s Planet Money has just spun off a best-selling book. NPR’s video series Tiny Desk Concert has 12 million subscribers on YouTube alone. The network created a weekly radio show around it and sold the rights to the format in Japan and South Korea.

Maher recently landed a pair of gifts totalling more than $113 million to improve NPR’s tech and distribution channels, strengthen its ties with member stations and market itself more effectively.

And yet, this is a daunting moment for NPR. Broadcast audiences are down throughout commercial and public media. News fatigue has set in. While NPR remains a top podcast producer, it lost its preeminent slot as iHeartRadio created hundreds of podcasts simply by repackaging all its radio shows. And then there’s the political backdrop.

President Trump and his allies have rallied supporters by accusing NPR and PBS of bias, a charge the networks deny. Last summer, the Republican-led Congress pulled funding from public media at Trump’s urging.

Before that happened, NPR received between 1 to 2% of its annual budget directly from the federal government. Its member stations had relied far more heavily on federal funds; They were, on average, roughly 10% of the stations’ revenues.

After losing the funds, layoffs rippled through public media. And because local public radio stations pay NPR to broadcast its shows, such as Morning Edition and All Things Considered, NPR recently determined it must cut about 30 newsroom positions through buyouts and layoffs. Greater cuts were forestalled in part by an anonymous $33 million gift — one of the two announced earlier this year.

The ferocity of changes buffeting the media industry is an opportunity Zylstra says she intends to embrace.

“Part of what’s exciting about the moment is putting the user at the center of the experience,” Zylstra says.

NPR’s track record with chief content officers 

The position of chief content officer has a choppy record at NPR. Kinsey Wilson, an innovator in online news, was the first to hold the role nearly two decades ago. Wilson urged NPR to invest in digital content, acknowledging consumption of broadcast news was sliding.

Shortly after becoming NPR’s CEO in 2014, Jarl Mohn eliminated the job. He said at the time that he wanted to quell tensions between the radio and digital sides of the public media network. He also thought it important to strengthen relationships more directly with listeners. Mohn made clear he would be his own chief strategist.

His successor, the late John Lansing, sought to revive the chief content officer position but NPR struggled to fill the role. In 2023, Lansing named Edith Chapin, then NPR’s editor in chief, to become acting chief content officer, as well.

Chapin stepped down last summer just days after the Congressional vote to undo more than a half-century of supporting public media. She said the burden of simultaneously performing two grueling top-level jobs for two years had ground her down.

The way Zylstra sees it, content creation and distribution must go hand in glove.

“If somebody is searching for you, you’ve got to be there. And all the same, you’ve got to understand why are you there. How does that fulfill your mission? Who are you making this for and how are they experiencing it?” she says. “I think that’s how I can help our teams connect the dots across their individual workstreams that move us forward.”

Disclosure: This story was written and reported by NPR Media Correspondent David Folkenflik and edited by NPR Deputy Business Editor Emily Kopp and Managing Editors Vickie Walton-James and Gerry Holmes. Under NPR’s protocol for reporting on itself, no corporate official or news executive reviewed this story before it was posted publicly.

After stops in Dallas-Ft. Worth and the Bay Area, FuelFest, a global car-enthusiast festival, will cruise into the OC Fair & Event Center in Costa Mesa on June 13.

Those in attendance will get to watch the rubber hit the road on a drift course, gawk at more than 700 performance-built cars on display and behold some of the vehicles that introduced Japanese tuner cars to the American market in “Fast and Furious.”

“FuelFest is where good people, car-culture people, come to meet one another because they share a common interest, a common passion,” said Cody Walker, founder of FuelFest and the brother of late actor Paul Walker, who was known for his role in Universal Studio’s “Fast and Furious” franchise.

Organizers expect thousands of people to flock to the OC Fair & Event Center for FuelFest, moved not just by the sight and sounds of muscle cars, but by what surprises are in store to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the first “Fast and Furious” movie.

“This is a love letter to the city of Los Angeles and Orange County,” “Fast and Furious” actor Tyrese Gibson, a co-sponsor of the event, said on a recent video call about FuelFest.

The event will be something of a homecoming for Walker, Gibson and the “Fast” franchise. Walker, raised in the Sunland-Tujunga area, said the event will include tributes to cars made popular by the seminal Southern California car scene, including a lowrider and exotic car display.

Of course, FuelFest is also a tribute to Paul Walker. To continue his brother’s legacy, Cody Walker quit his job as a paramedic and took charge of Reach Out Worldwide, a disaster-relief charity founded by Paul in 2010, and he created FuelFest as a means to raise money for his brother’s initiatives.

“[Paul] was 40 years old, and we thought he had about 70 to go,” Walker said on a video call, referring to his brother’s fatal car crash in 2013. “He didn’t care about being this significant person; he didn’t see himself that way. The charity is the kind of stuff he cared about.”

As for this edition of FuelFest, Walker and Gibson said they didn’t want to spoil all of the surprises, but here are six things to know before you head to the event.

1. ‘Fast and Furious’ cars will be on display

Some of the Japanese Domestic Market and American muscle staples seen in the “Fast and Furious” films will be at FuelFest.

Gibson might not know specs like RPMs or cylinders, but he said he appreciates the “Fast and Furious” characters’ gorgeous cars, including Dominic Toretto’s 1970 Dodge Charger and Brian O’Connor’s late ’90s Mitsubishi Eclipse. Those cars and other iconic “Fast” wheels will be at the fest.

“It was because of these films that people in the United States became familiar with the tuner culture of Japan, which was super niche up until that point,” Walker said. “We’re talking about 25 years. There’s iconic cars from the franchise, from a bunch of the movies that will be there.”

2. Children age 12 and under get free admission

As children, Cody and Paul Walker were practically programmed to love cars. Their maternal grandfather was a race-car driver and mechanic, and their father was a photographer for Street Chopper Magazine. An event like FuelFest, Walker said, can be formative in fostering a lifelong passion and creative outlet for car-curious children.

Gibson said organizers wanted to make tickets free for children so that entire neighborhoods in the Los Angeles and Orange County areas could have a low-cost day out. Therefore, a general admission ticket for SoCal FuelFest costs $58.24 including tax and fees, but children age 12 and under get in free with a ticketed adult.

“If you’re a single mother and you have three kids all under 12 and you want to bring your friends in the neighborhood with you, whether they’re you’re kids or your neighbors, they’re getting in for free,” Gibson said.

If you want to splurge, there’s a meet-and-greet with Gibson plus VIP Platinum admission for $739.38, including tax and fees.

At FuelFest, a global car-enthusiast festival, more than 700 cars will be on display.

(FuelFest)

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3. Performances by DJ Quik, Flesh-n-Bone and more

In addition to DJ sets and live performances, ’90s rap legends DJ Quik and Flesh-n-Bone will host an evening concert on the festival stage.

Walker and Gibson are mum about who else might show up during the concert, but they promised that audiences driving in from L.A. will find the trip down to Orange County worth it.

“There are no limits to the West Coast friends that DJ Quik has,” Gibson said.

During FuelFest, ’90s rap legends DJ Quik and Flesh-n-Bone will host an evening concert on the festival stage.

(FuelFest)

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4. A Lucha Libre sideshow

If that’s not enough, there will also be a Lucha Libre show with, according to Walker, a “full-blown” story that has extended across FuelFest locations.

Lucha Libre Voz, an independent professional wrestling company based in California and Arizona, will host its worldwide championship match between Tigre Uno and Septimo Dragon.

“It’s gonna be insane,” Walker said. “Best show of the year.”

5. Ride passenger in a drift car (with a helmet)

After signing a waiver, strapping on a helmet and paying a $30 fee, audience members can ride along in the passenger seat of a professional driver’s drift car. Walker calls it: A “full-blown throttle therapy session.”

Reservations for the drift car ride-along will be handled on-site. Pro tip: Get there early to beat the lines.

6. Reach Out Worldwide’s event goal

A portion of the revenue from the event, mostly from on-site activities such as the drift car ride-along, will go to charitable efforts at Reach Out Worldwide, which has assisted with cleanup, repair and resource efforts for victims of natural disasters, including Hurricane Melissa in Jamaica and the Los Angeles County fires in 2025.

FuelFest has raised about $1 million for Reach Out Worldwide since the charity resumed in 2024, more than a decade after Paul Walker’s death paused the group’s work. Cody Walker predicts the revenue from the SoCal show will help Reach Out Worldwide pass the $1-million milestone.

“I gave up everything to make sure that Reach Out Worldwide could function,” Walker said. “FuelFest started as this simple idea, but now we’ve held over 30 events and we’re in 11 markets. … Paul would be very happy with where this has all gone.”