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.’”
Andrew Rannells participates in "The Book of Mormon" 15th anniversary special performance curtain call at The Eugene O'Neill Theatre on Thursday, March 19, 2026, in New York. (Photo by Andy Kropa/Invision/AP)
FILE - Nikki M. James accepts the Tony Award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Role in a Musical for "The Book of Mormon" at the 65th annual Tony Awards in New York on June 12, 2011. (AP Photo/Jeff Christensen, File)
FILE - Trey Parker, right, and Matt Stone, co-creators of the Broadway show "The Book of Mormon," pose for a portrait outside the Eugene O'Neill Theatre in New York on March 16, 2011. (AP Photo/Victoria Will, File)
BOGOTÁ, Colombia (AP) — Colombians milled into voting stations on Sunday in the first round of the South American nation’s presidential election, choosing between candidates with radically diverging visions for the future of peace in a country haunted by decades of armed conflict.
The vote, seen as a referendum on outgoing President Gustavo Petro’s policies, comes 10 years after Colombia signed an historic peace pact with guerrillas of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC.
That agreement offered hope to break the nation out of a vicious cycle of fighting between rebel groups and the government but violence has roared back since then, coming to a head in the lead-up to the presidential vote. Criminal groups have increasingly launched drone strikes, armed attacks have plagued the race and last June, 39-year-old politician and presidential hopeful Miguel Uribe Turbay was fatally shot at a political rally.
In a country where the fight for peace has long been a part of the political ethos, the question of how to address the conflict is once again dividing the country.
The vote is slated to send a message to Latin America at a time voters are increasingly ditching leaders that pitched progressive policies, like providing opportunities to youths and rooting out corruption, to solve security ails, turning instead to heavy-handed security crackdowns like El Salvador's. It also comes as the Trump administration is placing renewed pressure on the region.
“Today's election isn't just important for us, it's important for all of Latin America,” said Juan Acevedo, a 62-year-old sociologist walking out of a voting station in Colombia's capital on Sunday morning. “Whoever wins here will suggest to the region if progressive policies will continue or if things are going to return to the right.”
There are 11 candidates running for president, but the election has basically turned into a three-horse race.
Senator and peace-builder Ivan Cepeda — a Petro ally — has led the polls and promises to carry on with Petro's “total peace” initiative to negotiate with the country’s remaining rebel groups and sign peace agreements with them in an effort to resolve the persistent crisis.
While the peace plan has largely failed as criminals have taken advantage of ceasefires with the government, Cepeda and Petro have maintained strong support among many because of progressive policies pushed forward under Petro, such as boosting the minimum wage.
Running against Cepeda are Abelardo de la Espriella and Paloma Valencia, who have vowed to come down on armed groups with a heavier hand.
De la Espriella — a bombastic lawyer known as “The Tiger” — has particularly gained traction among voters in recent weeks for pitching himself as an outsider keen on emulating the heavy-handed tactics used in El Salvador’s war on gangs, which sharply reduced gang violence but fueled accusations of human rights abuses.
Valencia is considered the political protege of Colombia's former president and strongman Álvaro Uribe, who governed from 2002 to 2010 with strong support from the United States and whose government beat back FARC rebels in an offensive that took a massive civilian toll.
Both de la Espriella and Valencia have touted their affinity for U.S. President Donald Trump even as he has taken a more aggressive stance toward Latin America than any U.S. president in decades and has pressured nations like Colombia, Ecuador and Mexico to more forcefully crack down on criminal groups.
If no candidate wins at least 50% of the vote — something extremely rare in Colombia — the two top vote-getters will face a runoff in June.
Maria Eugenia, a 57-year-old seamstress who was stitching a pair of jeans on Friday in downtown Bogotá, Colombia's capital, said she welcomed an all-out offensive on an expanding slate of criminal groups, regardless of the human cost.
While she approved of Petro’s pushes to improve the country's medical infrastructure, she said she was voting for de la Espriella because violence in rural areas of the country has gotten out of hand. She said negotiating peace pacts was simply “rewarding” armed groups.
“Of course, whenever you come down with a heavy hand, there’s always going to be debate,” she said. “But some people are going to have to fall to clean up what needs to be cleaned.”
Others, like Acevedo, the sociologist strolling out of a polling station on Sunday with packs of other voters, said a security crackdown like the one promoted by de la Espriella would only be returning to past military campaigns that he said only reinforced Colombia's cycle of violence.
He said he planned to vote for Cepeda, adding that while the government hasn't done a perfect job — failing to pass ambitious reforms and follow through on promises to reduce violence — it was better to continue pushing forward with their political coalition's efforts to take a different approach in addressing the country's violence.
He added that his main critique of Petro's administration was the power grabs made by criminal groups as they negotiated with the government. He said he hoped that if Cepeda won, he would strike a better balance between negotiating peace and maintaining control over those groups.
“We're a country that has lived through 60 years of conflict,” Acevedo said. “The danger here is that we return to the times where everyone is saying that the only way to solve our problems is with bullets and more war.”
Follow AP’s coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean at https://apnews.com/hub/latin-america
A voter marks a ballot during the presidential election in Bogota, Colombia, Sunday, May 31, 2026. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)
Supporters of presidential candidate Ivan Cepeda of the ruling Historic Pact coalition gather outside the polling station where he voted during the presidential election in Bogota, Colombia, Sunday, May 31, 2026. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)
Presidential candidate Ivan Cepeda of the ruling Historic Pact coalition gestures to supporters after voting during the presidential election in Bogota, Colombia, Sunday, May 31, 2026. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)
Voters check polling information during the presidential election in Bogota, Colombia, Sunday, May 31, 2026. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)
President Gustavo Petro shows a ballot during the presidential election in Bogota, Colombia, Sunday, May 31, 2026. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)
Voters line up at a polling station during the presidential election in Bogota, Colombia, Sunday, May 31, 2026. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)
Presidential candidate Abelardo de la Espriella of the Defenders of the Motherland movement depart a polling station after voting during the presidential election in Barranquilla, Colombia, Sunday, May 31, 2026. (AP Photo/Ivan Valencia)
Soldiers patrol as voters arrive at a polling station during the presidential election in Barranquilla, Colombia, Sunday, May 31, 2026. (AP Photo/Ivan Valencia)
Electoral workers set up a voting center in preparation for Sunday's presidential election in Bogota, Colombia, Friday, May 29, 2026. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)
A man rides his motorcycle past the ruins of homes destroyed five months earlier in an attack by dissidents of the former Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, in Buenos Aires, Cauca, Colombia, Wednesday, May 20, 2026.(AP Photo/Santiago Saldarriaga)
Presidential candidate Sen. Paloma Valencia of the Democratic Center party waves supporters during a campaign rally in Bogota, Colombia, Sunday, May 24, 2026. (AP Photo/Ivan Valencia)
Presidential candidate Abelardo de la Espriella of the Defenders of the Motherland movement and his running mate Jose Manuel Restrepo, left, raise their fit from behind a bullet proof booth during a campaign rally in Barranquilla, Colombia, Saturday, May 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)
Sen. Ivan Cepeda, presidential candidate of the ruling Historic Pact coalition, speaks to supporters during a campaign rally in Bogota, Colombia, Friday, May 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)
