The Book of Mormon's Andrew Rannells Cons Co-Stars Into Some Early Morning Farming

Given the amount of time Broadway actors spend at work, it’s no surprise that they enjoy a good joke—often at a co-worker’s expense! In celebration of April Fool’s Day, Broadway.com asked some of our favorite stars to share their funniest work-related pranks. In some cases, the stars initiated the practical joke; in others, the joke was on them. Read on for true tales of behind-the-scenes tomfoolery.

ANDREW RANNELLS (Elder Price in The Book of Mormon)

"While I was on tour with Jersey Boys, we had a press representative who had a very distinct manner of speaking, and I found that I was able to imitate him very well. So one night, after a couple of drinks, my friend and fellow cast member Jamie Karen and I decided to make some prank phone calls to other cast members pretending to be this press rep. We started calling people at about 1:00AM for 'an emergency press event' the next morning at 5:00AM. I told them it was a hot air balloon festival on a farm outside of St. Louis. We were shocked and pleased to find that most of the people we called agreed to participate in the event. I was able to get one actor to agree to do tumbling passes as Frankie Valli while singing songs from the show; another actor said she was willing to improvise a 'ribbon whip dance,' if needed. It was fantastic. It was one of my finer moments on that tour."