The Book of Mormon

With their elbows pointed sharply up, the crisp young new group of Mormons carved up the stage of the Capitol Theatre making  the musical  feel fresh and just as shocking as we first remembered it.

The tuneful ding-dong sound of the doorbells of the opening song “Hello” is soothing,  as the recruits innocently rehearse for their missionary positions (double entrende intended) with precision and camp sensibility.

Watching this musical always makes me marvel how these days Christianity and the Church of Jesus Christ of Later Day Saints turn the other cheek when works of art so openly mock their core beliefs.

The Southpark creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone believe that religious scripts are made up by certain personalities with vivid imaginations.

In a portent of things to come, the parents of Nick Cox (Elder Cunningham) warn his colleagues that he has an unfortunate habit of telling lies.

Cox – originally from Boston and now on his way to become a dual citizen of Australia – deliciously milked all those awkward angular postures which make his character so in-your-face hilarious.

Elder Price (Sean Johnston) drew the short straw when he scored Cunningham as his partner and their destination is revealed as Uganda his faith is tested.

The Book of Mormon opened on Broadway in 2011 – years before the black lives matter movement - and it is open to speculation as to whether the response to the musical would have been so positive had it happened after.

In 2020 black members from both the original as well as current Broadway companies wrote a letter to the production team regarding what they described as the thin line between stereotypes and satire, and the use of the Ugandans as "props and punchlines".

The writers argue that the African characters are a stereotype of how some white Americans Mormon missionaries view a gangster dominated Ugandan village.

Despite calls for the show to be updated the inaccurate stereotypes about Ugandan people, including the rates of HIV, myths about cures to the disease and attitudes to child sex abuse remain unredacted.

The best bit of balance is the inclusion in the musical of a reference to an overtly racist Mormon text – which God changed his mind about – in 1978.

Setting aside the text, the performances of the Ugandan characters were just as splendid as their white bread colleagues.

Musically The Book of Mormon has lots of earworms with the sweetest being “I Believe”, sung by Elder Price, which Johnston impressed with.

For me the show stopping scene of the night was the duet between Nabulungi (Paris Leveque) and Cunningham (Cox) “Baptise Me”.  It sizzled.

There are unconfirmed rumours that once The Book of Mormon finishes its national tour that non-professional rights will be released.

Just don’t expect to ever see a Broadway Junior edition of the work! This is for adult performers only.

David Spicer

Photographer: Daniel Boud

Editor's note: In 1937, American playwright George S. Kauffman famously said, "Satire is what closes on Saturday night". Clearly he never imagined this Broadway phenomenon.