Josh Gad reunites for The Book of Mormon's 15th anniversary at Tony Awards
Josh Gad reunited with Andrew Rannells and Rory O’Malley on Sunday at the 79th annual Tony Awards, where the original The Book of Mormon cast marked the musical’s 15th anniversary with “Man Up.” The return put three of the show’s defining performers back on the Tony stage for a number tied to the first act’s close.
The performance came 15 years after The Book of Mormon won nine Tony Awards in 2011, including best musical. For a production that built its identity around Gad and Rannells as Elder Cunningham and Elder Price, the reunion turned an anniversary nod into a live reminder of how much of the show’s original profile still runs through those roles.
Trey Parker Introduces the Reunion
Trey Parker, Matt Stone, and Robert Lopez introduced the reunion before Gad, Rannells, and O’Malley performed “Man Up.” That framing kept the moment inside the show’s own authorship rather than treating it as a generic awards-show guest spot, and it gave the anniversary appearance the same creative lineage that launched the musical in 2011.
The current Broadway production is also back in the room. Kevin Clay now plays Elder Price, Diego Enrico plays Elder Cunningham, Sydney Quildon plays Nabulungi, Charlie Franklin plays Elder McKinley, and Jacques C. Smith plays Mafala Hatimbi, while Gad, Rannells, O’Malley, Parker, Lopez, Stone, and Nikki M. James are set to return for eight performances from June 9 to 14.
June 9 to 14 Return
The eight-performance run from June 9 to 14 gives the production a limited window to turn nostalgia into ticket demand. That is the practical business piece of this reunion: the Tony Awards appearance is not just a tribute, it is part of a short engagement built around names that still carry the show’s history.
Josh Gad and Andrew Rannells also shared a Broadway bill in Gutenberg! The Musical! from 2023 to 2024, which makes this latest pairing less like a one-night callback and more like an active working reunion. For a musical that was briefly forced offstage after the Eugene O’Neill Theatre caught fire on May 4 and then resumed on May 27, the Tony stage appearance arrives as both celebration and reset.
Eugene O'Neill Theatre Reset
The May 4 fire closed the Eugene O’Neill Theatre for a few weeks before the production restarted on May 27, so the Tony Awards appearance landed while the show was still rebuilding momentum. A 15th-anniversary number performed by the original stars is the kind of move that can pull attention back to a title that already has a proven awards record and a current cast carrying the nightly load.
Gad’s return matters because it ties the anniversary to the roles that helped define the musical’s first run, not just to the title itself. If the June 9 to 14 engagement converts the Tony spotlight into full houses, the reunion will have done more than salute the past — it will have helped sell the present.
