Legendary Broadway composer Stephen Sondheim wrote a letter to Trey Parker in 2005 informing the South Park creator that he had voted for Team America: World Police in Academy Awards’ best picture category.
In light of Sondheim’s passing last month, the Twitter account for another one of Parker’s beloved projects, The Book of Mormon, shared a letter sent to Parker by Sondheim in February 2005.
“I saw Team America and voted for it as the best movie of the year (a fat lot of good it did you),” Sondheim writes in the letter. “I gather from friends to whom I’ve burbled on about it that it was treated rottenly by the critics and that you are much discouraged. I can’t blame you, but then again this is the time of discouragement. In any event, congratulations to you and your partner [Matt Stone].”
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To end his letter, Sondheim asked Parker if he would “ever be interested in writing a stage musical with an old traditionalist, namely me?”
Sadly, the two never did work together, but Parker later made his mark on Broadway with The Book of Mormon. The musical ended up winning nine Tony Awards, including Best Musical.
Stone and Parker also parodied Sondheim on the South Park Season 15 episode, “Broadway Bro Down,” which sees Sondheim challenge Randy to a bro-down.
Inspired by the greatest. pic.twitter.com/vNLymFJwXz
Advertisement— THE BOOK OF MORMON (@BookofMormon) December 3, 2021
