NEW YORK -- The line of smiling sweepstakes winners snakes in front of the Eugene O'Neill Theater, then winds up 49th Street and around Eighth Avenue. It's early on a Friday for a crowd in front of a Broadway theater, but these lucky few are in line for a one-time free performance of the Tony-crowned best musical of the year, "The Book of Mormon." The 2 p.m. show was a thank-you to the hundreds of fans who wait and hope for a limited number of lottery tickets but don't get in.

"There are people who flew in for this," marvels Tommar Wilson.

"Can you believe it? That's crazy," cast mate Rory O'Malley says.

The two Carnegie Mellon alumni are huddled in the dressing room Mr. O'Malley shares with Michael Potts, awaiting the arrival of co-star Josh Gad. Lighted mirrors cover two sides of the small, square room, and a black and white curtain hides the window side. A Barbie and Ken boxed set sits high on a shelf over Mr. O'Malley's side of the mirror.

"Josh is never late," says our redheaded host, who should know. Mr. O'Malley and Mr. Gad were CMU roommates who share the distinction of being Tony nominees -- Mr. Gad for best actor in a musical and Mr. O'Malley for featured actor.

Mr. Gad bursts into the room, downing a gulp from a bottle of water.

"It's a little mobbed out there," he says. "People tried to date-rape me!"

With his floppy dark curls and glasses, the cuddly Mr. Gad stands out not only in a crowd of fans but onstage, where he's the misfit among clean-cut Mormon elders and the Ugandans who it is their mission to convert. He plays Elder Arnold Cunningham, the nebbishy sidekick to fellow Tony nominee Andrew Rannells, the embodiment of Mormon perfection.

Mr. Gad and Mr. O'Malley had previous Broadway experience in "The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee," but Mr. Gad has been best known for his screen roles. He returned to his Shadyside haunts last summer to film "Love & Other Drugs" (he played Jake Gyllenhaal's brother) and played a part in the Pittsburgh-set sitcom "Back to You."

He brought Mr. O'Malley into the mix for a recent return to his career launcher, as a "Daily Show" correspondent covering New York's Gay Pride parade. He was frequently recognized for his role in "Mormon" despite denials that he's not that guy.

Unlike his present company, Mr. Gad did not partake in much musical theater on his way to a 2003 BFA in Drama. "All the dancing in 'Mormon'? My God, it's the most I've done since my bar mitzvah," he says. His cast mates make a big deal over the fact that he was nominated for an Astaire Award, honoring Broadway's best dancers.

"If you can do theater ... if you can understand the most difficult texts from Shakespeare to Chekhov, then the other stuff comes easily," Mr. Gad says. "And that's the foundation that they give us [at CMU]. Whether it's voice or movement, it's such an unbelievably extensive four years, to understand how to use your body and all your tools."

Mr. O'Malley, who sings and dances up a storm in "Mormon," likens his college training to "musical boot camp." He came to Pittsburgh from Cleveland despite his family's misgivings. "I got through as a Browns fan, and the Steelers fans weren't too mean to me," he says.

Mr. Wilson, a Kansas native, says that after juggling five characters at a time in college, concentrating on one at a time comes easily. He has appeared on Broadway in a variety of musicals -- from "The Music Man" to "Hair" -- since 2000. He was late to "Mormon" compared to Mr. Gad and Mr. O'Malley, who have been involved in this show in some capacity for four years.

"I had seen a reading of the show ... maybe two years ago, so I knew kind of what I was getting into," Mr. Wilson said. "But the first day of rehearsal, they did a run-through for the three of us that weren't in the workshop and I didn't realize how [expletive] hilarious it was until that day. It blew my mind."

The musical that The New York Times anointed "Heaven on Broadway" arrived with a pedigree that might have suggested another fate for "The Book of Mormon." "South Park" creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone and "Avenue Q" composer Robert Lopez created an always irreverent, often vulgar, sometimes sweet story with a traditional musical structure.

The story and lyrics skewer blind faith while rewarding the concept of faith and charity tempered with reason and a sense of humor -- plus many unprintable obscenities.

As a huge fan of another Parker/Stone parody, the marionette movie "Team America: World Police," Mr. O'Malley understood he was getting into hard-R material and jumped in wholeheartedly.

"I never actually have to say anything bad; I have to do something probably horrible with Hitler. We all have our moments," he says to nods and laughs all around. "I don't think anything of this is difficult because Bobby Lopez, Matt and Trey were so meticulous about getting the story right and making the characters so rich, that everything is earned. Every curse word, everything that's unpleasant to say, yeah, it's unpleasant, but it's part of the story that we're telling. We earn that moment on the stage."

There was some fear that the religious theme, coupled with the explicit language, would turn off audiences, but Mr. Gad has noted just a handful who have headed for the exits.

"There were two people in the front row, stage right, yesterday who I could not take my eyes off of because they were miserable, just miserable, and it was fascinating to me because, I mean, they couldn't be that miserable if they're staying until final bows, right? I think there are people who have struggled with the language, some of the themes, but at the end of the day, if you stay all the way through, you're going to leave with something valuable."

Josh Gad's Arnold Cunningham has a penchant for stretching the truth and making pop-culture references, but when Arnold has trouble with the name Nabulungi (the character played by Tony winner Nikki M. James), a bit of Josh comes to the surface. The actor predicts he has come up with 25 to 30 names to represent Nabulungi, including Neosporin, Necrophilia ...

"My favorite was Nipple Cream, but that's one I've only used once," he answers.

"My favorite was Nathan Lane," Mr. O'Malley says.

"One day it was Nordstrom and Nordstrom Rack ..."

"That one really killed me," Mr. Wilson says.

When the question comes up about onstage mishaps, the trio takes over the interview. 

"Josh, pray tell," his castmates demand.

"There were two days in a row where a song I'd been singing for over a hundred performances I decided I no longer knew," Mr. Gad says. Cast members are held accountable for even one missed or added word. So watching his co-stars faces "just tore me to shreds. There was a bunch of this [he shakes all over] onstage, just convulsing bodies."

After hundreds of performances, even a single word missed or added can become a big sin among the cast. "Everyone holds you so accountable," Mr. Gad says.

"Just yesterday my shoe fell off, my nametag fell off, I couldn't get my outfit," Mr. O'Malley says. He explains that his nametag didn't survive his quick change from the angel Moroni to Elder McKinley.

"We were all [thinking], 'Rory's making a fool of himself,' " Mr. Gad says, laughing.

"Oh, were you?" Mr. O'Malley says.

Wardrobe malfunctions are frequent, and Mr. Wilson is shy at first about revealing his, but finally relents. "My problems all center around my big penis in the second act. That's the only thing I ever have issues with."

The guys banter matter-of-factly about Mr. Wilson's troubles with a contraption worn by male ensemble members during the number "Joseph Smith American Moses."

Mr. Gad then offers he has a favorite moment with Mr. Wilson, who also plays a guard to a violent general with an unprintable name.

"Every day we have this little intimate moment that nobody else knows about. When he comes out with the gun and he's wearing these gold bullets, I go, 'Beautiful necklace, Tommar.' " Mr. Gad then gestures stroking the bullets.

"I go, 'I've got a gun,' " Mr. Wilson says, smiling.

"The Book of Mormon" received 14 Tony nominations and won nine awards, the most by any show on Broadway this season.

"It was the best night of our lives," Mr. O'Malley says of the ceremony last month.

"It was magical," Mr. Gad chimes in. "The fact of the matter is that Rory and I were college roommates and then to be able to stand there and attend something we used to watch together on our couch was pretty surreal."

"I thought, I'm not going to believe it until we're actually there, but the whole thing has happened and I still ... feel like it was the fake Tonys and they just told us to be there," Mr. O'Malley says.

While Mr. Gad and Mr. O'Malley waited and watched from their seats in the Beacon Theatre, Mr. Wilson took part in "Mormon's" Tony number, "I Believe."

He wasn't sure how the audience would react to the song without the context of the show. "Are they going to laugh? Is it going to be funny? And it was even more of a rock concert at the Tonys. They were screaming for the last 20 seconds of the song. It was unbelievable."

With people applauding as nominations were announced, neither Mr. Gad nor Mr. O'Malley heard their names. (Norbert Leo Butz and John Larroquette won in their categories). But they use words like "insane" and "amazing" when recalling co-star Ms. James' emotionally charged speech while accepting her best featured actress Tony.

Neither of the nominees in the room displays disappointment that he has no statue to show for the night.

"I think you'd have to be some kind of gluttonous crazy person to walk away from a Tonys show with nine awards and be like, 'Oh, we didn't get enough.' That best musical Tony is for everyone in this building who has worked so hard," Mr. O'Malley said.

"When something like that happens and it's celebrated in one night and it happens at one of the things you watched as a child and created your dreams around being a part of, it's totally surreal. ... Maybe one day I'll believe that it happened."

"I've been in New York for 11 years now, I graduated in '99. I don't think I've been in a show that hasn't had at least one other Carnegie Mellon person," Mr. Wilson says. "There are so many designers -- Peter Hylenski, he was nominated for a Tony this year [for sound], we went to school together."

Mr. Wilson was at the Oakland campus just before the Purnell Center was opened. He says there was no film studio, no website and "I remember Greg Lehane [professor of drama and music at Carnegie Mellon] would tape us with a little recorder."

Times have changed, and now performances from CMU to Broadway are readily available on YouTube for all to see, or, if you're lucky, you can score a ticket to an award-winning show featuring a handful of folks with local ties.

"To us it's such a moment of pride because we get to represent the success of that community," Mr. Gad says. "I remember Rory and I going to see Patrick Wilson in 'The Full Monty' and saying wow, that's one of ours. You take such pride in that. For the three of us to be sitting here representing one of the most successful shows of the season is a pretty incredible thing."

"The Book of Mormon" is scheduled at the Eugene O'Neill Theater, 230 W. 49th St., New York, through September 2012.

First Published: July 10, 2011, 8:00 a.m.