The Broadway show “The Book of Mormon” is already a hit in Denver — though many theatergoers will miss it because the 51,000 tickets for the run sold out in less than five hours.

Online sales for the musical — written by Trey Parker and Matt Stone, who grew up in the metro area and created the hit TV show “South Park” — slowed to a crawl as the Denver Center for the Performing Arts website was overwhelmed.

Meanwhile at the box office, a line snaked out the door and doubled back on itself.

“I’ve tried to call about 100 times and haven’t gotten through,” said Evan Montagne as he stood in line with his phone in his hand.

Tickets for the show, which won nine Tony awards including best musical, went on sale at 10 a.m. People were still in line when the tickets were gone at 2:35 p.m.

The show opens a national tour in Denver Aug. 14 through Sept. 2.

“This is kind of unprecedented,” said Jeff Hovorka, director of media and marketing for the Denver Center Attractions.

“This is the largest show to come out of New York in years, and to launch in Denver is huge,” he said.

Denver served as the launch site for the national tour of “The Lion King” in 2002. There were two marked differences between then and now. The center decided not to put the ticket sales online in 2002 because the system was so new, which forced everyone to try by phone or in person. “The Lion King” also ran for 10 weeks instead of the three weeks scheduled for “The Book of Mormon.”

This year, patrons were simultaneously calling, trying the online route and physically standing in line.

People began camping out in front of the building at 9 p.m. Saturday. By 1 p.m. Sunday, only single-ticket availability remained.

Bree Owens had planned to fly to New York for the show with her best friend but decided to see it in Denver when they heard it was coming to town.

She was near the back of the line at about 11:30 a.m. while her friend was at home trying to purchase online.

“An official-looking guy came up and said there are only 20,000 tickets left and that they’d probably sell out, but it was our choice to stay,” Owens said. “But nobody got out of line.”

As a rumor spread throughout social-media platforms that the show had sold out, tickets began popping up on eBay for much higher prices than the marketed $35 to $125 cost.

The asking price for a pair of tickets for a Friday show in the mezzanine was $1,025.

But Heidi Bosk, publicity and promotions manager for the Denver Center, warns people to do their research before buying indirectly.

“Some of these scalpers can rip you off with fake tickets, so pay attention,” Bosk said.

Kristen Leigh Painter: 303-954-1638 or kpainter@denverpost.com