NEW YORK (AP) — When “The Book of Mormon” opened on Broadway in 2011, John Eric Parker was onstage as the show was showered with rapturous reviews and cheers. In 2026, he's still, happily, there.
Parker is the only original cast member standing, a rarity in professional musical theater where performers usually move onto the next project within a year.
“I’m still here. I feel still very much viable. I still feel like I’m having a good time and I’m doing
good work,” he says. “The first indication for me to go is to not have any joy. And this still brings me huge amounts of joy.”
The singer and actor whose Broadway credits also include “All Shook Up” and “Rent” makes himself available to newcomers in the cast if they seek out his advice. But he won't press.
“I don’t push myself or what I know on other actors because I feel like they have to be afforded the opportunity to find it for themselves,” he says.
“The show is one of those that is so good that if you just get on the train and ride it, it will take you where you need to go. If they choose to come to me, I am more than available to talk about what I know.”
Producer Anne Garefino finds it special to be able to walk into the theater and get a hug from Parker, who she calls “a rock, but without being pushy about it.”
“I’m honored that he has stayed this long because he’s talented, he’s got a gorgeous voice,” she says. “There are other shows, but he found his place and I am glad it was with us.”
“The Book of Mormon” came to Parker during a low time. His sister passed away unexpectedly at the same time his mother was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease. “This thick skin was pretty thin for me at that moment,” he recalls.
He juggled two offers — a new musical called “Memphis” and what would eventually become “The Book of Mormon.” He did workshops and readings for both at the same time.
The first show to be ready to go was “Memphis” in 2009, and Parker was part of the cast that won the Tony Award for best new musical the next year. Months later, “The Book of Mormon” was ready to go, so he joined the ensemble and was part of the cast that won the best new musical Tony in 2011.
“It was like a lightning striking twice in a row, which is like, ‘When does that ever happen? How does that ever happen?’” he says.
“The Book of Mormon,” about two Mormon missionaries who find more than they bargained for in Uganda, was written by Trey Parker and Matt Stone, the creators of Comedy Central’s irreverent “South Park,” and Robert Lopez, co-creator of the equally irreverent Tony Award-winning musical “Avenue Q.”
“The Book of Mormon” was a cultural juggernaut when it opened, often becoming a raise-the-roof rock concert. “I feel like by the time we got to opening night, I was pretty settled in believing this is about to be something,” Parker says.
He recalls one performance in which he spotted Steve Martin next to Robin Williams who was sitting next to Whoopi Goldberg. He was then told the cast of “Modern Family” was also in the theater. And Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson were there.
“It was like, ‘Oh, this is different,'” he says. “All right, kids, buckle up, 'cause here we go.’”
Cast members eventually left and were replaced and then they were replaced. Parker stayed, although he took time out when his mother died and after becoming a newlywed. He did other projects — like a role in “Tales of the City” — and went on vacations — but returned to the Eugene O’Neill Theatre and his comfy dressing room, which he affectionately calls “my Midtown office.”
He says not having to hustle for the next job has freed him to give back. He's on the board of Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS and on the board of directors of Broadway Inspirational Voices.
“The notion of being tethered to something allows me — this is just my personality — to bungee jump even more,” he says. “It allows me to really stretch myself in ways that I may not have been able to do if my hustle brain was still on full time.”
He says the show has changed as the world around it changed. It started as a musical about faith and then after the pandemic, it was about the joy of theater itself. He heard audiences react differently to some lines as the #MeToo and Black Lives Matter movements crested.
“Art continues to surprise me. Because just when you think it’s mundane or sort of like pat and routine, something happens in the world,” he says. “It is still a living, breathing organism.”
He used to avoid using the term “last man standing” for himself until he went to a family reunion and his uncle — the last survivor from seven siblings — showed up.
“This 78-year-old, 6-foot-4 man drives up in a convertible BMW and jumps out of the car in his Birmingham, Alabama, drawl and says, ‘Well, well, the last man standing is here!’ He's standing like Superman and I thought to myself, ‘All right, stop shying away from it.’”
